MEMBERS of Parliament (MPs) from both the ruling and opposition on Wednesday night unanimously supported and passed a private members bill giving powers to government to repossess huge chunks of land dubiously allocated to investors at the expense of Zambians.
Rufunsa MP Kennedy Chipungu (MMD), who moved the motion, said government should start repossessing land that has dubiously been allocated to investors so that Zambians can also benefit from their God given natural resource.
Mr Chipungu said government should be cautious enough on land matters and that it should not allow foreigners to possess more land than Zambians.
“Government should ensure that Zambians start benefiting from their God-given natural resource.
“We are very concerned that our own people are not benefitting from this land and it is only the so-called investors who are benefiting from this land. This should come to an end,” he said.
And in winding up debate, Minister of Lands, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Mwansa Kapeya warned that government will deal ruthlessly with anyone breaking the law in land allocation.
He said government will deal sternly with lawbreakers regardless of whether they are traditional leaders or a local authority as land is held by the President in trust on behalf of the people of Zambia
Mr Kapeya said it is sad that only a few foreigners own land throughout the country as similar names are found everywhere.
He said Government will start repossessing land acquired illegally and that no compensation will be given.
“Mr Speaker, the Land Act CAP 184 of the Laws of Zambia does not authorise traditional leaders to sell land.
“Traditional leaders are only custodians who look after land on behalf of the President who holds it on behalf of the Zambians,” the minister said.
“Traditional leaders are only allowed to allocate up to 250 hectares free to indigenous Zambians. Therefore, should there be any traditional leader who has sold land either to an indigenous Zambian or investor, they have done that illegally,” Mr Kapeya said.
He said Government has commenced the land audit exercise to collect statistics on land use patterns across the country.
Mr Kapeya said through the land audit, Government will clean up the confusion by getting accurate records of who is on the ground and how they got that land.
He, however, said people who obtained land legally will be protected under the laws of Zambia, adding that Government can only acquire their land through the Land Acquisition Act CAP 189 of the Laws of Zambia.
He said in this case, Government will be required to compensate the owner of the land based on the market value of the land in question.
Way to go! My land, my Zambia.
Hope this won’t be done to punish political enemies but having said that hope all land in game parks sold to minning companies will be repossessed. eg Lower Zambezi national park.
Great! This land madness has gone too far!
This is good news indeed. These foreigners should not even be owning land in Zambia. Can you as a black man from Zambia own land in China, India, UK, USA, Brazil, Turkey, Israel, etc?
Next step, the land will be shared among the PF big wigs. Watch this space
This is very important lets get back our land before its too late check more land given out by chiefs its bad at the expense of their local people – us Zambians please grab it
Plz start with kalumbila.its like someone was drunk before giving out that land,its toooo vast.
Now that is good news! Now this should serve as a lesson to the people in charge of the land resources. Now educate those chiefs who are busy selling land to Chinese settlers. I hope that the ministry of land works with the chiefs to safeguard the land and instead of selling land to foreigners (Investors), they should instead lease the land so that we do not end selling the whole after a few years.
Best news from our Parliament so far!!
Everyone, including Mushota, supports this move!
Some time back the Solwezi Council said it was donating land to the King of Swaziland or something! Just shows how we value our land!
Safari Camp owners in Luangwa game pack are now blocking Zambians from owning land by bribing the chiefs, the council and ZAWA officials.
It’s gratfying that those woo Evin sold the lanin quation ,are now i front to pas imotions in palmnt intlestng news ,am sure they’r now covncd that pf & sata are nt jokers,nice 1 ba chipungu
What kind of english is this mate?
its a language similar to english
Editor,
The story is misleading in the sense that, to the best of my recollection, the National Assembly passed a MOTION urging the Government to repossess illegally acquired land around the country. It was not a BILL. The difference being that a Bill becomes law once assented to by the President whereas a Motion does not. I hope the story can be edited and updated so as to give an accurate picture of what the National Assembly did.
It is a bill. Mr. Sata just needs to sign it and become law. I am sure he will sign it. Unless you say you don’t know Mr. Sata. He is very patriotic unlike RB and Nevers Mumba. HH is also patriotic.
We are yet to see or hear action being taken in this regard. All we hear from different governments is “land audits” and the scams continue,meanwhile huge chunks of land are being ceded to foreigners,condeming us into servitude and eventual slavery! the VP said recently alot of land has been allocated illegally by traditional rulers,but we have not seen any action taken to correct the situation. Why did it have to take a private member’s motion to get this matter to this level and not the Minister himself being proactive? If they are serious about this issue of land let them punish all culprits illegally allocating land including those in urbans and political hooligans who are taking over peoples’ land using political connections!!
Now on this one we can say the MPs have done a real commendable job. Only hope they wont start sharing it among themselves…Kudos
This is great news to me. Let us not sale land to foreigners but lease it . Let GRZ and Opposition move together on this one. And again we warn the PF – ministers not to go behind to allocate land corruptly to the investors. Zambians are also investors who must be considered guys.
Peace and Prosperity to Mother Zambia.
Galuni Land along KK airport shud be repossessed. A lot of landless zambian citizens are being ripped off,small piece of land kr50,000.
now ranging from kr100,000 to kr One point something.
Too, too bad that the activities of one high-profile non-chief have caught up with him.
Its good news for the nation to pass such progressive laws that aim to protect Zambia and benefit Zambians. There already huge lessons learn t over land issues from Zimbabwe and other parts of the world. However, in Zambia there real cases where land was dubiously given and corruptly titles issued. The law should aim first at repossession of the land to the state and secondly deal with those in offices that facilitated such illegal activities and punish those involved through audit trail to be identified and send clear messages that public servants are answerable to the state and people of Zambia.
Wonderful! However, we should also take back ‘excessive land’ Rights from those legally sold too much. Compensate them and tell them to go home. No foreigner should own more than the 250 acres Zambians can have.
As for those who illegally got land from deranged money bags chiefs; take land back AND MAKE them pay compensation to us through ZRA as a way to increase our revenue(okay I’m dreaming here)! They have committed a crime and should really be banged up in jail for the sheer audacity to defraud poor Africans!