Army fights for Mikango land

By GRACE CHAILE LESOETSA
ZAMBIA Army has submitted to the Lusaka High Court that the land housing Mikango Barracks belongs to the State and not to the Busoli Royal Establishment (BRE) of the Soli people in Chongwe.
This is a matter in which the BRE through Senior Chieftainess Nkomenshya Mukamambo II, have sued the State and Zambia Army commander Lieutenant-General Dennis Sitali Alibuzwi, seeking damages for battery, assault and trespass.
BRE wants an order of the Court ordering the Commander to instruct his subordinates to halt all sorts of works and desist from harassing the residents in Muzembela Village.
They are also demanding compensatory damages for the demolished houses and a restraining order against Zambia Army within 200 metres of the plaintiffs’ person or property.
The royal establishment is also demanding that the army returns their detained goods and should also pay punitive damages.
Mr Elijah Simba, who is the establishments’ lands committee vice-chairperson and Christopher Muzembela Chiota as Muzembela Village headman has cited the Attorney General, Lt-Gen Alibuzwi and Lieutenant-Colonel Billy Munshya as defendants in the matter.
They claim that the land is still in customary tenure as the government has not filed any application for compulsory acquisition.
But the army has submitted in their defence that the plaintiffs’ are not entitled to the claims stating that subdivision number one of farm no.3809 belongs to the government and was alienated in 1961.
The defendants stated that the land was titled to Lucy Van Rensburg on November 12, 1962.
They added that at the time of the alleged demise of the land by the traditional leader to the army in 1972, the said land was not customary land and could not fall under the administration of the royal establishment.
“That the army has always cooperated with the locals living in the surrounding villages save for the unrelenting illegal squatters who insist on erecting illegal structures on army property despite numerous reminders advising them to refrain from doing so,” they stated
“The defendants deny any alleged acts of violence as tabulated by the plaintiffs and will state that as illegal squatters, the affected individuals have no right to trespass on army land, neither do they have any right to build a state property,”