Tue, 25 Apr 2017 10:43:22 +0000
By JUSTINA MULENGA
GOVERNMENT should expropriate all the land owned by foreigners and in future give priority to Zambians to develop thereby encouraging them maximize their investments.
Veteran politician Mbita Chitala and 3rd Liberation Movement President Enoch Roosevelt Tonga have proposed that government should make it a criminal offence for any foreigner to own land in Zambia.
Dr Chitala said government should also criminally prosecute any Zambian that facilitates the ownership of land to foreigners.
He said the move by the MMD government to enact the 1995 Lands Act 1995 which allowed foreigners to hold title to the land was an unpardonable commission.
He said the development had resulted in many foreigners acquiring land at the expense of Zambians.
He regretted that large tracts of land in Zambia were now owned by foreign and accused the British of signing fake agreements which robbed Africans of their land, the last concession being in 1909 which gave all the land and mineral rights to a private company, the BSA Company.
“It is my submission that this conduct by our governments must come to an end. Many Zambian patriots are arguing that the provisions in our laws that allow for this reactionary conduct must be immediately repealed. This issue of our governments since 1991 of being complicit in auctioning our land to foreigners must be stopped,” he said.
And Mr. Tonga echoed Dr. Chitala’s observations saying previous and current governments had failed the people of Zambia as far as land management was concerned.
He said that Zambian citizens were deprived of buying huge portions of land where investors and other foreign nationals are given priority.
“The government must preserve land by selling it to the local people unlike giving it to foreigners who come for their selfish benefits,” he said.
He said that most political parties that had formed government failed to curb the issue of land management due to corruption.
Mr Tonga said that selling land in the country should only be to Zambian citizens and foreigners must rent and not have titles.
He said that it was very disappointing to find that the local people were languishing and struggling to acquire land in their own country while for foreigners acquire it without any difficulties.
Mr Tonga said that there should be fairness as far as land management was concerned.
