Boniface Kawimbe dismisses false media land reports

Luapula Province Minister Dr. Boniface Kawimbe has dismissed media reports that mining prospectors in the area were forcing small-scale farmers from their land at gun point.

Dr. Kawimbe told ZANIS in an interview yesterday that as provincial minister he had not received any report on alleged manganese miners who are reportedly displacing small scale farmers from their land.

He said he would be the first person to know if really such misconduct by prospectors was happening. Dr. Kawimbe has however promised to thoroughly investigate the matter and take appropriate action on perpetrators, if investigations proved to be true. According to the Zambia Land Alliance, a land rights Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) based in Mansa, the provincial capital is said to be beset a myriad of land disputes where people’s right to land is being
violated by manganese miners who displace them when they discover that the area has minerals.

Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), an international media organisation has quoted Ignatius Musenge of the Zambia Land Alliance explaining that his organisation handles about 20 land related complaints per week on average, and so far more than 500 people have been evicted since 2009 in various parts of Mansa as a result of manganese mining.

Musenge told IRIN that People who have been forced from their land have not been given compensation or alternative land which he said was a source of concern.

And another Mansa resident Peter Mwila confirmed to IRIN that prospectors were chasing them from their own land which was given to them by their chief..
“Prospectors came and chased us from our own land,” “Is this country just for the rich? The chief gave me a 10-hectare piece of land many years ago, where I
have been farming. But early this year, someone came and chased me with a gun, saying I was farming on his mining area, and I am now living with my uncle in
the next village.” Mwila explained.

Luapula Province borders the mineral-rich Katanga region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and has deposits of manganese, cobalt, citrine and copper;
some reports claim there are also deposits of diamonds, uranium, gold and tin.

ZANIS