Investors shouldn’t displace communities – ZLA

Wed, 31 May 2017 11:31:47 +0000

By MUKOSELA KASALWE

 IT is vital to encourage large scale investments that will not displace members of the community because of the emotion attachment which cannot always be compensated in monetary terms, says Zambia Land Alliance board chairperson Emmanuel Mutamba.

Mr. Mutamba said the Zambia Land Alliance was advocating for non-displacement of community members as a result of large scale investments such as mining and agriculture activities and that if people were displaced, they should be compensated adequately.

He said this in Lusaka yesterday at the stakeholders meeting on the Resettlement Policy that members of the community who were displaced by large scale investments could not recover losses in terms of compensation because of the emotional attachment to that particular land such as memories and disturbance of their livelihood.

The non-governmental organisation observed that the resettlement policy focused on resettlement schemes which were part of Government’s efforts to provide land and support to Zambians who could be affected by displacements.

“The Zambia Land Alliance is encouraging large scale investments that will not displace members of the community because it negatively affects their livelihood.

“If members of the community are to be displaced, they should be compensated adequately,” he said.

He observed that communities were not involved in displacement issues and that consent on land acquisition and resettlement was sought from Government and traditional leaders.

Mr. Mutamba has called on the Government to review the resettlement policy to provide more comprehensive guidance to investment induced resettlements.

He said that it was vital to ensure that relevant agencies such as the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) and the Zambia Environment Management Agency (ZEMA) had the human and financial resources to carry out their mandate.

And Extractive Industry Transparency Alliance national coordinator, Mwiya Mwandawande said that there was need to harmonise various laws of government ministries on matters of resettlement.

Mr Mwandawande said that the National Resettlement Policy focused about 60 percent on displacements which occurred as a result of natural disasters and not those due to large scale investments.