CADRES IN LAND SCAM

Sat, 14 Oct 2017 08:47:00 +0000

…family accuses politician of setting cadres on them to grab farm

By Bennie Mundando

A LUSAKA family has complained of intimidation and threats from suspected cadres who want to grab their farm in Lusaka’s Barlastone area after they illegally demarcated plots which they offered to would-be developers and threatened to deal with the owners if they blocked the transaction.

The family has now accused Lusaka District Commissioner Davison Mulenga of supporting the cadres after blocking their initial attempts to remove them from their land following summons to a meeting which was supposed to be held yesterday to clarify the matter.

After showing title deeds to the Daily Nation reporter who went to farm No. F/693/A/28 yesterday, Webster M’hango said it had become clear that Mr. Mulenga was the one who coordinated the illegal activities by cadres who were arrested by Matero police not long ago for demarcating his land and selling it to other people.

Mr. M’hango said the woman Mr. Mulenga was claiming to be the owner of the land was not even working for the person from whom he bought the farm in 1980 but was from the neighbouring farm and that she was the one who begged him to put a temporal structure on his land as her family grew.

“After her sons, in connivance with some cadres started selling our land illegally, I told her to leave my farm. Her sons then teamed up with a horde of cadres who had been coming from time to time to issue death threats if I blocked any of the people they had sold the land to. I reported them to Matero police and they were arrested and that is how the developers stopped.

“It is an insult for Mr. Mulenga to allege that I was a farm worker to this old woman because I have never been. I worked for Barclays Bank while my wife worked for the Zambia Airports Corporation in a senior position. Which year did we work for this old woman?” Mr Mhango asked.

He said they bought the farm from a Mr David Simpson using a loan obtained from Barclays Bank and that records were there to show. He said he had been summoned to the DC’s office yesterday and that because they had arrived late, the DC said he could not attend to them but pushed the meeting to Monday.

 “It is a shame that a DC appointed by the President can be involving himself in illegal activities. He summoned us today (yesterday) claiming that there were complaints over the ownership of our farm and that the Ministry of Lands has been involved to settle the controversy,” he said.

But Mr. Mulenga said that he was only acting in his capacity as a Government official to support and protect an old widow whose land was wrestled away from her by her former farm worker.

“There is a complaint from almost all the surrounding farms there on how he acquired that land when an old widow has lived there longer than himself and that is what we want to verify. As a Government officer, I need justice to prevail. I need to support and protect those who are vulnerable.

“He can get any title but how did he acquire it? Even you, if you bring someone as a farm keeper and after that person realises that you do not have papers for the farm, goes behind you and acquire papers, will that be fair to you?” Mr. Mulenga asked.