The Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) has been in the process of engaging community members who encroached upon Mumbwa Game Management Area for the past two years. This process was not handled by ZAWA alone but with the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) in the office of the Vice President.
Local communities are allowed to live in GMAs but are required to settle according to the provisions of the General Management Plan (GMP) – which is part of the Law.
Through the process of negotiations and community sensitization, community members agreed to be resettled. The process of resettling the people started on Wednesday August 26, 2015 and is expected comes to an end on Tuesday September 1, 2015 as most of the farmers have found alternative land on which to settle.
Some farmers are going back to their places of origin mostly in Southern Province where they left other farmlands, while others especially the young and energetic are progressing to Kasempa and Mufunta GMA.
ZAWA will soon be making follow-up to advice the chiefs like Kahare and Kasempa where these people are re-locating to advise them on how best to settle them.
ZAWA would like to correct the impression created by certain quarters that the authority had prematurely evicted and terrorized the squatters by burning their houses.
We would like to inform the public that the farmers occupied make-shift structures some of which ZAWA are burning down after the occupants had moved out to deter poachers from using these unoccupied structures as hide-outs.
ZAWA has a mandate to manage wildlife and as a government authority has a human face and the people who are shifting from the GMA have not lost a single piece of property. The people being relocated can confirm that.
Sakabilo Kalembwe (Zacks)
Public Relations Officer
I don’t want to sound political but I feel Edwin Matokwani was such a diplomatic, nice chap who carried himself very well and was in my mind a great lad to lead ZAWA. He grew up from the lower rungs, bottom up and he has experience from the lowest level. These are the men we need to lead us. The current DG is more politically inclined and lacks that ‘diplomacy’ expected from someone of such high standing in that organization. He is so authoritative! Where was he picked from? His aggression is better suited to lead anti-poaching unit within ZAWA and not ZAWA as a whole.
So ZAWA and the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit in the Veeps office are terrorizing the squatters by this poorly written exculpatory note here. Why do things take so long to be addressed in Zambia? Why didn’t you prevent a single squatter from setting up shop there two years ago already? We are always reacting to things when they have reached break point in Zambia that is why things are so shoddy. Look now, you are failing to provide electricity to your population and blaming it on the rains. Same attitude everywhere! Pathetic!
“Some farmers are going back to their places of origin mostly in Southern Province where they left other farmlands, while others especially the young and energetic are progressing to Kasempa and Mufunta GMA.
ZAWA will soon be making follow-up to advice the chiefs like Kahare and Kasempa where these people are re-locating to advise them on how best to settle them.”
…and you don’t see the problems coming… so is disaster mitigation code for it will take exactly one week to evict you because we have planned that portion to the most precise detail… let’s be honest… no one is going to help them settle without cash, right? Besides unless you’ve stuck them on a direct trip to their destination… a squatter will simply find another location to squat. For a country with so much…
…land…we have a long way to go…
Surely how can ZAWA terrorize illegal squatters who are encroaching on National Park land…when they are merely doing their job.
Mr. X don’t critics DG from social media. If you want matokwani come out in the open. it is not kombe who removed matokwani neither did he influence his removal. he had his own wrongs which had nothing to do with Mumbwa GMA. Kombe is a lawyer in case you did not know.
#Kanyela… All I am saying is the current DG doesn’t represent ZAWA very well. If I were you I would take it as positive criticism than being defensive.
Your comments are absolutely misplaced and dwelling in the past. ZAWA has performed exceptionally well in the last three years with the support of PF government. You are probably one of the disgruntled outfitters that enjoyed hunting privileges from past DG’s.