VICE-PRESIDENT Inonge Wina has warned political party cadres and councillors against illegally sharing land at the expense of the majority Zambians in need of the resource.
Ms Wina said Government would not tolerate any political party cadre or councillor who illegally shared land to benefit themselves or other people.
“This culture of party cadres and councillors sharing land among themselves should stop now. Government will not tolerate it,” she said.
Recently, political cadres in Lusaka and Ndola, councillors and council officials have been cited for involvement in land grabbing wrangles and illegal land distribution.
Police have since arrested a number of cadres in Lusaka.
Ms Wina said Government would not protect anyone from prosecution that was embroiled in illegal land demarcation.
The Vice-President was speaking when she officiated at the Zambia National Building Society (ZNBS) women’s mortgage promotion in Lusaka that would run for two months starting this May.
The promotion is offering women access to finance to build or purchase housing at 14 per cent interest instead of the regular 16 per cent.
Ms Wina also directed relevant institutions that deal with State and traditional land to implement the policy to ensure that 30 per cent of land was exclusively given to women because despite it being in place, it had not been implemented.
She said title deeds should be made available to citizens in the shortest possible time and not two, three or more years as has been the case for some years now.
The processes involved in land acquisition, Ms Wina said, should be made easier and accessible to people especially women.
Ms Wina said she was happy that ZNBS had come up with such an initiative because it would contribute to economic development by giving land to the mainly vulnerable in society, who were women.
She said Zambia was facing a decent housing deficit, which if not addressed, would lead to creation of more shanty townships and all stakeholders should work together to ensure that all challenges were dealt with like ZNBS had done.
ZNBS board chairperson Goodwell Kapema said ZNBS had taken into consideration that most women lacked the time to get information on housing finance or collateral or verifiable income to access mortgages.
Mr Kapema said ZNBS had come up with a product to help women access housing finance because they were vulnerable but key to economic development.
Bank of Zambia deputy Governor Tukiya Mabula said financial institutions should step up measures that promoted financial inclusion of all sections of society.
Well said Madam Vice President but deal with why cadres or what ever you call them are illegaly demarcating land when there are relevant institutions tasked to administer/ distribute it (land).
The problem is that it is next to imposible to genuinly acquire land in Zambia now from either Min. of Lands and or Councils.
Please mama, do more than just “warning”: repossess the illegally acquired land and prosecute alleged offenders. Land, on title, was been illegally and violently invaded in Ibex Hill (Kalale settlement), Lusaka West and Silverest area.
Backwardness is a problem in zambia.How do you keep ‘warning’ thieves?????? Let the law be applied on em