Thu, 24 Aug 2017 11:40:50 +0000
By Oscar Malipenga
THE rate at which foreigners are owning land in Zambia has reached alarming levels, Patriotic Front (PF) Kanyama member of Parliament Elizabeth Phiri has observed.
And Ms Phiri has warned that indigenous Zambians would become landless if the situation was left unchecked.
Ms Phiri gave an example of Tanzania where she worked as deputy high commissioner citing that they do not allow foreigners to own land but only allow them to rent land from indigenous Tanzanians for a limited period.
“I pray that one day as Zambians we can go in that direction because when I look at Kanyama for example, it is sitting on prime land.
“We have to consider our own because now you would find that Zambians in the end will be landless. Our President (Edgar Lungu) one day echoed this that even as we give out land to foreigners, let us be considerate because we might be colonised,” Ms Phiri said.
She warned that Zambians would only be Zambians by name as land would have all gone to the foreigners. Ms Phiri proposed that investors should only be allowed to rent land from indigenous Zambians for a limited period.
“For example, Kanyama is sitting on prime land. In other countries what they do is develop land owned by indigenous people for a limited period after which the property is declared to the owner of the land,” Ms Phiri said.
She proposed that foreigners should only be renting land from the indigenous owners as opposed to owning land, adding that both local and investors would be benefitting.
Ms Phiri said Tanzanian nationals were physically looking poor but the majority own massive infrastructures.
Commenting on her developmental projects in her constituency, Ms Phiri said she was proud that Kanyama did not record any cholera outbreak because she managed to remove the 27-year garbage.
Ms Phiri said police officers did not have a toilet as they were using a pit-latrine which was in a bad shape at Kanyama police station.
“I took it upon myself that we had to do a new ablution block of which two are for men and two for women with shower facilities. Why a shower? Because in Kanyama they pick dead bodies on almost a daily basis and when a police officer picks a dead body he needs to take a shower and go back to his duties,” she said.
Ms Phiri said Kanyama residents were happy that President Lungu’s campaign promise had been fulfilled following the paving of BH area at Soweto market and that works were currently ongoing.
She said the Ministry of Health had given Kanyama three clinics and one big hospital which would have almost 1,000 bed-space capacity and titled land had already been identified.
Ms Phiri also disclosed that the Road Development Agency through the minister of Housing and Infrastructure, Mr Ronald Chitotela, has promised to tar a total of 50 kilometres of selected roads into bituminous standard before the rains.
