CHOMA Municipal Council (CMC) has issued 500 letters of warning since March 2013 to people building structures on illegally acquired land as demolishing exercise looms.
CMC assistant public relations manager Robert Zawe cited Kamuza, Chandamali and Zambia Townships as some of the prone areas where some people had illegally acquire land.
Mr Zawe said in an interview that the local authority had issued the 500 halting orders to people erecting building on land suspected to have been illegally acquired.
He, however said, the council was facing challenges to deliver more notices because most people who were constructing on such land, were usually not found at their premises.
Mr Zawe said the halting letters issued so far, were meant to stop the perpetrators from continuing to construct various structures on the illegally acquired pieces of land.
“Since March, 2013 to date, as a local authority, we have issued about 500 notices to people who have built structures on illegally acquired land and these letters are meant to warn them to stop their
activities,” he said.
Mr Zawe said, although some had complied with the warning from the local authority, other residents had continued to build.
He said the council would not tolerate such illegality by some people acquiring land which was not serviced by the local authority at the expense of stipulated procedures of obtaining land.
He said all structures built on illegal land were not well planned and they were disturbing infrastructure planning and development in Choma.
He said the council would continue sensitizing people on challenges of constructing on illegal land and urged them to cooperate with the officers executing their duties.
Just demolish those structures as they did in Kitwe,people don’t listen,action please.
500??
Choma is HQ of Southern province, isn’t it? I heard that UPND want to use Cha Cha Cha formula. Here we go.
investigate,get leaders of such illegalities and take them to court.let them have a say as to why?these are Zambians not refuges.50 YEARS AFTER independence why having shunties where proper housing should have been done? Remember ,this is winter do not put people in the cold.if by chance such illegalities were encouraged by any council officials , do not demolish.
Mr Zawe well done. There is too much lawlessness in Choma. Cadres have taken law into their own hands. When they just find land that is not developed they start apportioning land to themselves and say “naisye ti dylepo” to an extent that they have even found themselves almost sharing land in a known man’s farm! If the MMD cadres had an attitude like the PF cadres, there would have been no land left by now. Simply demolish the structures, especially those near the new provisncial HQ’s! Plse bring sanity to Choma.
MAYBE YOU JUST FORGOT. YOU MEANT TO SAY, ‘THERE IS LAWLESSNESS IN ZAMBIA’.
IN ZAMBIA ANYONE DOES WHAT COMES TO HIS HEAD. IN OTHER LANDS EVERYTHING IS GOVERNED BY LAW. FOR INSTANCE, YOU NEED TO GET PERMISSION FROM THE LOCAL AUTHORITY EVEN CUTTING A TREE IN YOUR YARD. ZAMBIANS CAN GO INTO THE FOREST AND INDISCRIMINATELY START FELLING TREES WHILE THE LAW LOOKS ON. AMAYENDELE KINDA ATTITUDE. PLEASE, LET’S HAVE LAWS WITH TEETH IN OUR COUNTRY.
And in the meantime, where is the police in all this? How can the councils choose an expensive method of demolishing houses when all they need to do is have the merchants of these land scams prosecuted and jailed. This will send a very strong signal to would be perpetrators. No wonder outsiders laugh at us. Have we failed to think, is the above suggestion very far fetched? Surely we can save a lot of money this way instead of mobilizing bulldozers which consume a lot of fuel, manpower to supervise the whole excercise , security personnel to ensure chaos does not break out. There is also the trauma experienced by the owners of the destroyed property. This creates resentment towards authority. In short, let the local authorities be proactive!
CORRUPTION IN ZAMBIA IS NOW DEEP-ROOTED. IT STARTED WAY BACK IN THE KK DAYS WHERE VIGILANTES WERE SO POWER THERE WAS NOTHING YOU ONE CAN SAY OR DO EVEN WHEN A GANG OF THEM JUST COME TO RAPE YOUR WIFE. AS LONG AS YOU BELONGED TO KK CAMP YOU WERE POWERED AND UNTOUCHABLE. VIGILANTES CORRUPTLY SOLD LAND AND MASSIVELY ABUSED LAWS WHICH WERE IN THERE HANDS. THIS HAS CONTINUED TO DATE AND THERE MUST BE AN EFFECTIVE WAY OF INSTILLING POSITIVE FEAR INTO CITIZENS. JUST JAILING THE SELLERS OF LAND WONT YIELD ANYTHING. BOTH JAILING THE SELLERS AND DEMOLISHING THOSE ILLEGAL STRUCTURED WOULD EFFECTIVELY DRIVE A POINT HOME.
Please do not waste stationery writing letters. Those criminals do not read those letters at all. The only language they will understand is a front end loader knocking at their bedroom window, at 2.00am in the morning!
choma council must found time so that you can have meet with your people and have a way forward with your dont do things like pf kitwe.
This sharing of land is mostly promoted by Party Cadres and Council workers. It includes high level civil servants, cases in reference are Manchinda not long ago and council workers in mentioned compounds with notorious RDCs – Chibbunus of those days. The demolition should start with the corruptly acquired drawing office of late Malata former council worker which is directly few metres behind Choma Municipal Council Offices within the government acre. In Kamunza & Chandamali the PF suspended Ward Chairman – Mr Chembe was selling land to people and some are the ones that are building. Let alone sharing among Party Cadres.
Really demolishing is the only way and advertise for legal ownership