Zambians will soon be squatters

Sat, 10 Jun 2017 09:34:44 +0000

BY BENNIE MANDANDO

WE RISK being squatters in our own country if the haphazard acquisition of land by foreigners at the expense of citizens continues, the Zambia Republican Party (ZRP) has said.

ZRP president Wright Musoma said it was sad that Zambia had become a haven where foreigners’ interests were more important than that of citizens due to corrupt systems and bad laws.

He said foreigners with money had ‘‘express permission’’ to land acquisition, a situation that was unheard of in other countries.

Mr. Musoma said poor Zambians had been left at the mercy of rich foreigners who could easily bribe their way into land acquisition while locals did not even realise the importance of getting title for their land.

He said his party was worried by the increasing rate at which land was sold to foreigners and that if nothing drastic was done, Zambians were set to become squatters in their own country.

He said while there was nothing wrong with foreign nationals coming into the country to set up business, it was wrong to give them preferential treatment over citizens in land allocation as land was as an inheritance for the locals.

“How many Zambians in China, for example, do you know who have bought land and have title to it? This is the mistake we are making. We have very porous systems in place which can easily be manipulated. Right now, there are Zambians especially in rural areas who do not know they need to have title to the land they are occupying and these are targets by the Ministry of Lands and the council.

“The situation has been compounded because even traditional leaders are selling land to foreigners haphazardly in the name of investment but where will our children live? Every single day, people are being displaced from pieces of land they have called home for a long time and nobody seems to care for their plight. At the rate we are selling our land, we risk being squatters in our own country,” Mr. Musoma complained.

He said there was need for the country to come up with laws that will ensure that no foreigner got title to any land, saying the existing laws were inept, archaic and open to abuse by those entrusted with the responsibility of land administration.

“We need to come up with laws that will safeguard Zambians’ interest in land acquisition. There should be no foreigner allowed to buy land and get title otherwise our children will curse us for failing to preserve this precious gift that God had given us.

‘‘Proper management of land will remain elusive as long as we continue with these archaic colonial pieces of legislature which do not take into account the plight of Zambians.

“We are looking forward to a time when we will put proper laws that will safeguard our interests. Our law-makers should not always wait until there is a problem before they think of amending our laws but these should be done as a precautionary measure before disaster strikes.

 ‘‘Right now huge chunks of land have gone to foreigners while our people are living in confinement and this is not right. It is a scandal for Zambians to live as though they are in concentration camps when we have abundant land,” Mr Musoma said.

On Thursday, Lands Minister Jean Kapata suspended the Kabwe Municipal Council and the Ndola City Council as land agents for failure to adhere to the guidelines and procedures in the administration of land.