Mon, 04 Sep 2017 09:49:11 +0000
….oil marketing firm wants to evict them from their 53 year old settlement
By Kelvin Siabana
MORE than 5,000 residents of Ndola’s Old Regiment are threatened with eviction from land they have occupied since 1964, following the sale of the area by the City Council to an oil marketing firm in Lusaka.
However, Bwana Mkubwa constituency member of Parliament, Dr Jonas Chanda, has vowed to fight the eviction of people in his area in a move that he claims was suspicious because he had not seen documentation of the sale.
The Ndola law maker said threats by the oil marketing company to evict the residents would not work because they would resist moving on account of having lived on the land for more than 50 years.
He said it was inhuman to threaten people with eviction from land that was home to so many people for so many years.
Dr Chanda said Old Regiment settlement has been in existence since 1964 and people have built houses and families have grown.
He said it was not clear why the sale of a settlement already inhabited by so many poor and suffering Zambian citizens was shrouded in secrecy.
He said on behalf of the named oil firm, a Lusaka-based law firm had written an eviction notice to have over 5, 000 residents of Old Regiment settlement to be evicted from their settlement and the letter does not state where the affected families would be taken to.
“Though I have not seen the letter of sale of this settlement to this petroleum company, it is purported to have been sold somewhere around 2005 by the Ndola City Council but all efforts to get details of the sale of this settlement have proved futile,” Dr Chanda said.
He said the former MP for Bwana Mkubwa constituency, Emmanuel Chenda who also served as Minister of Local Government and Housing, had handled the Old Regiment issue and assured the residents that they would not be displaced from their settlement.
Dr Chanda said under the Local Government and Housing Development (Chapter 4 page 38) clearly states that squatter settlement would be upgraded through urban renewal to improve the living standards of the inhabitants.
“The PF Manifesto on Land Development (Chapter 13 page 53) also states that the PF government shall prevent displacement of local communities by the urban elite or foreign investors,” Dr Chanda said.
Dr Chanda has appealed to President Edgar Lungu, to protect the lives of thousands of poor families in Old Regiment settlement area from predatory and parasitic investors.
The parliamentarian said he would not accept Zambians to be turned into refugees in their own country while foreigners take over their land.
“Residents of Old Regiment have vowed not to move from the place they call home and I strongly stand with them in this fight because they should not be victimized by foreigners in their own country,” Dr Chanda said.
