The ugly scenes that greeted the Vice President on her arrival at the Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport recently are unfortunate and deplorable. The Vice President, her Honour Madam Inonge Wina was on the Copperbelt on a fact-finding mission over emerging allegations that there had been rampant encroachment on land by illegal squatters, mainly the Patriotic Front cadres. These allegations came from the outspoken provincial minister, Hon. Bowman Lusambo.

If what had happened at the airport in Ndola had been reported only by the private media, the incident would have quickly been dismissed as mere political propaganda championed by the opposition. But the incident was captured in full glare by all government owned media outlets, electronic and print. ZNBC even had the footage and accompanying audio of the mayhem and anarchism by the cadres. The cadres harassed the minister, denouncing him for allegedly giving negative coverage of the party on the Copperbelt. The media personnel, and interestingly this time around, from the government media organisations, were not spared from verbal abuse by the cadres, and the police could only watch helplessly as the foul spectacle unfolded and almost degenerated into the physical violence which is never in short supply in the ruling party.

What happened at the Ndola airport is not an isolated and unfortunate incident, but it is something that has been brewing in the PF since it ascended to power five years ago. There has been a systemic breakdown of law and order, respect for party structures and harmonious intra-party co-existence. Needless for me to remind you of the bloody violence and political vitriol that characterized the succession battles after the demise of the party’s founding president. Party cadres, often backed by bigwigs in the party hierarchy and government, are unleashed on perceived internal enemies and rivals within the party. They are helped with resources and given logistical support in a well-organized clandestine operation, and sometimes they are even armed. Ask Hon. Given Lubinda about his unfortunate experience that led to the loss of his ministerial position and suspension from the party during the late Michael Sata’s presidency.

So it should not come as a surprise that Hon. Lusambo, the PF’s Kabushi constituency lawmaker and a presidential appointee to a ministerial position has come under fire for trying to redeem the Copperbelt from illegal land allocations being perpetrated with impunity by the PF cadres in collusion with some councillors and council employees. No doubt that Hon. Lusambo has touched on their raw nerves. Their livelihood and that of their sponsoring masters has been seriously threatened, and anyone standing in their way is an intolerable enemy who must be sorted out.

This reminds me of the abounding cases of cannibalism in the nonhuman animal world. Cannibalism is the act of one individual of a species consuming all or part of another individual of the same species as food. It is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom in hundreds of species. It does not, as once believed, occur only as a result of extreme food shortages or artificial conditions, but commonly occurs under natural conditions in a variety of species. An African proverb with an unknown origin, says that “when a leopard wants to eat its offspring, it accuses them of smelling like goats.”

In human species, we read of bizarre stories of cannibalism, and these are often driven by a compulsive urge for survival in the absence of anything else edible to nourish the body. In his chilling book, Dinner with a Cannibal, Carole A. Travis-Henikoff argues that cannibalism is an ancient and natural adaptive strategy that kept early humans alive until seasonally scarce food resources improved. But of course there has also existed in history, irrational psychopaths who have derived culinary pleasure in digging their teeth into human flesh.

On the most basic level, this idea of cannibalism serves as a fitting description for what is politically happening within the Patriotic Front. A practice, which I must be quick to say, is also evident in other political parties. Since the PF came to power, many of the unemployed individuals have looked to the government to serve them “dinner” since, as they argue, they are the ones who worked hard to deliver the victory to the party. They are so hungry for that meal, that they would not tolerate any delay in its preparation and served to them. Whoever seems to be a stumbling block to their anticipated and long awaited enjoyment of their deserved meal, is a political threat and a subject of their unrestrained savagery and thuggery. This is the situation manifesting itself within the PF.

The much romanticised “more money in the pocket” did little to fulfil the big-eyed dreams and hopes of the cadres. Alas, very few of them today are swimming in the pool of the promised paradise. And those few who are, have been flaunting their rewards, much to the chagrin of the majority. This has created a fertile ground for illegality, and fueled the cannibalism manifesting itself today. We are seeing an unprecedented rise of the “dog-eat-dog” politics where the law of the jungle appears to be reigning supreme. The cadres are now behaving like a deranged prize fighter who has run out of opponents, and begins punching wildly at everything that moves in the ring. Hon. Lusambo happens to be in the ring right now, and they will growl at him, bark and bite.

The predatory and cannibalistic tendencies becoming deeply entrenched in the ruling party are a recipe for national disaster. And that is what we saw in the public humiliation of a senior government official and presidential appointee by known party hooligans at the airport in Ndola. State resources were used by the Her Honour, the vice president to go and resolve a matter which has been caused purely by unruly PF cadres. If there was discipline in the party, this situation wouldn’t have arisen. Here are social misfits, instead of encouraging the provincial minister in the execution of government programs, we are instead witnessing a ruthless battle for his political annihilation. They don’t care at all about the consequences that this climate of political and social banditry engenders in our country.

Her Honour, the vice president was right and spot on in denouncing this kind of thuggery. She said the alleged illegal allocation of plots, encroachment on land and the building of structures with impunity despite notices from local authorities shows high levels of indiscipline among the party cadres and some unscrupulous council officials. The animosity shown against a presidential appointee was reckless.

Let me appeal to the party leadership at all levels, and especially to the PF and republican president, His Excellency Edgar Lungu to immediately put an end to this thuggery and political cannibalism. The rising levels of unemployment among youths and its attendant poverty and frustration has turned them into willing tools for thuggery in the hands of desperate politicians. Left unchecked, this kind of behaviour will lead to an evolution and sustenance of a violent political culture in the country, and the subversion of democratic order.

What should the president and the Patriotic Front do to get over this problem?

1) The president must make very strong, unambiguous pronouncements against such behaviour among some of the members of the party, and exhibit strong leadership over this crop of cadres who regard themselves as sacrosanct.

2) The party must identify the sponsors of such anarchy within the party and let them face the full discipline of the party. This will send a very strong signal to anyone with such a mindset to take warning. Indiscipline must be punished.

3) Furthermore, the PF must strengthen party structures on the ground. There must be proper coordination of activities between the party secretariat and the provincial, district, constituency and local branches so that every activity at the lower organs of the party reflects what the party has sanctioned and approved. If local leaders are not sure of an activity in which they have been asked to participate by a senior party official, they should consult with the secretariat to avoid what we saw in Ndola.

4) The party must also make it clear that not everyone who has sacrificed for the party can be rewarded equally. There are no jobs, nor the money to go around every party member.
5) The party should begin to think of income generating programs that they can roll out for the benefit of the unemployed cadres, and do this transparently so that it leaves no room for suspicion that the party is dipping into the government treasury. A clear separation between the party and the government must be explained to the cadres and to all party members.
6) Finally, it is also important to be deliberate and serious about promoting intra-party democracy in the party. Democratic behaviour should be regulated and enforced by clear guidelines and rules that set the tone of how important internal democracy should be. Internal democracy must be the incubator that nurtures citizens’ political competence and provides opportunities for building greater cohesiveness in the party.

These practical solutions are not only for the PF, but should be taken seriously by all political parties. We need law and order and sanity restored in our nation, or else this deadly dinner will destroy the parties involved and the nation.

By Isaac Makashinyi

Illegality in land allocation has been in the news lately with the Vice President expressing concern about the rampant encroachment on land on the Copperbelt. In the Daily Mail of 11th November the President through the Presidential Affairs Minister has also weighed in on this and warned developers to follow procedure in land development.

Is this awakening by the politicians too little too late? It must be said that Illegal land allocation became endemic since the early 90s when we liberalised the economy and made land an economic commodity without seriously putting in place policy that would guide land administrators on how land allocation should be done in an equitable and just way. We also allowed cadres to administer and demarcate land with impunity. The Ministry of Lands has flimsy guidelines concerning land alienation. Specifically, with respect to allocation of land it merely states that “once the land is numbered and surveyed the local authorities may advertise the stands in the news media or any transparent medium, inviting developers to apply to the Commissioner of Lands through the local authorities, using a prescribed form. On receipt of the applications, the local authorities will select the most suitable applicants for the stands and make recommendations in writing to the Commissioner of Lands, giving reasons supporting the recommendations. This recommendation letter will be accompanied by the full set of Council minutes”. The guidance to the councils is to select the most suitable applicants and make recommendations. How do they measure suitability? This is not clear and allows subjective selection of applicants.

Recent Land controversies

We recently saw PF cadres haranguing the Copperbelt minister at Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe airport apparently because he had started talking tough on illegal land allocation on the Copperbelt. Although the PF on the Copperbelt have come out and stated that the difference with Bowman Lusambo is to do with him setting up parallel structures and not the issue of illegal land allocation, it would appear that the land allocation saga has ruffled a number of PF feathers- to the extent that one CK has purportedly been sucked in the quick sand and lost all his feathers. Lately, we have also heard of the “self-allocation” of land by Kabwe councillors who in their wisdom decreed in biblical fashion thus: “Let us give ourselves plots before anyone else for it is not good for councillors to compete with mere mortals”. And they saw that it was good!

We have also seen cases where settlers at Star Cottage in Lusaka West have been ordered to vacate land that some have occupied for a long time. Similar news items coming from Kasama about a degazetted forest being shared by senior civil servants and those with connections. Clearly there are challenges in the land allocation system in the country.

Firstly with regard to the Copperbelt land saga especially the one around the Kafubu river and Levy Mwanawasa stadium, councils have lamentably failed to contain the upsurge of illegal developments because land allocation and development control has been handed over to political patronage-cadres or as Bowman puts it ,criminals have been let loose to be planners, surveyors and commissioners of land.

Those in the political space belonging to the ruling party (sometimes merely waving the party flag) have tended to usurp the power of allocation and development monitoring rendering councils impotent to do anything. We cannot have people building in designated car park spaces, play park areas and protected ecological areas with impunity and with tacit acquiesce of the local councils. Further, the councils’ building inspection units are more or less non-existent and cannot cope with developments taking place in full glare of the public. It is not uncommon therefore to see that most developments do not have building permits. Councils can even claim they did not see that there was this or that development as if such developments happened at night and was erased in the day!

Secondly for the Kabwe case we see a situation where councillors in their sincerity believe that they are entitled to be allocated land without competition (Ubomba mwibala alya mwibala). Similar problems have arisen in Kasama at the degazetted forest. Government officials conniving with Ministry of Lands officials have gone ahead and allocated themselves pieces of land without the due process being followed. This is because there is no criteria on how land allocation should be done. The Land Circular of 1985 which forms the basis of the guidance earlier quoted does not go far enough to advise councillors that they are not entitled to land allocation by merely being councillors. Even if they are the ones who are going to conduct the interviews they must subject themselves to criteria that should be set out clearly.

On the issue of Star Cottage land belonging the office of the president, which was partly invaded by illegal squatters, it would appear there are also others who have been on that land since the early fifties whose eviction is grossly unfair. While we do not recognise undocumented occupation of land in state land areas we should appreciate that if someone has occupied land for a period such as over 20 years without contestation there has to be recognition that that person has a legitimate right to claim that land. We understand that section 35 of the Lands and Deeds Registry bars ownership through adverse possession where land is held on title by someone else. However, in the case of the Star Cottage it appears the earlier settlers might be disadvantage by this law and there is need for equity in determining this case. Going forward we need a prescription law or law that allows for adverse possession so that the poor and vulnerable in our society are protected from unnecessary evictions. This will protect those that have genuinely settled on land for a long time and have no contestation from anyone including the owner. One would expect that a matter like this need to be addressed by the Lands Tribunal so as to ascertain and arbitrate for those who genuinely made this land their village and those who took advantage and squatted in the area. Those that took advantage of the community and settled amongst them illegally recently do not deserve to be spared eviction.

Solutions

We therefore propose
1. Guidelines must be formulated on land allocation procedure which not only talk about advertising and interviewing but also consider equitable distribution of land to the youth, women and vulnerable in society. Otherwise we now find that land is being held and allocated to the same people with connections to the system.

2. As a first step towards decentralisation large councils such as Lusaka and Ndola need to be have offices in the suburbs where monitoring and control could be better effected. It didn’t need the Vice President and Lusambo to notice that illegal building activities where taking place in Ndola. Mere issuance of demolition notices is not enough as these are easily ignored. We need to enforce the notice by actual demolition so that people begin to see that we are serious in what we want to achieve in protecting our land.

3. Councils need to be capacitated with skilled manpower in land survey, planning and administration who will ensure that land is properly zoned, planned and surveyed according to planning ethos. We do not lack laws- we lack implementation. The number of Building inspectors is very small and as result we are not coping with development control issues in our cities and towns.

4. Our new constitution spells out the principles on which land shall be held. Among these principles is that there shall be equitable access to land and that security of tenure for all who hold legally shall be guaranteed. Equitable access therefore suggests that the poor and vulnerable must have a means to access land without them perpetually being tenants to the elite and the powerful. However, as is known land use takes on the most economic use and often those who are poor are often “convinced” to sell their land to those with the financial means who are better able to use that land for financial gain. This pushes the poor to the fringes. Even as we debate the ever evasive land policy we must take cognisance of the need to be equitable in our dealings on land and ensure that we protect this resource for the future generation. We owe it to ourselves and our children to correct the chaos that has beset the land administration sector.

By E.Tembo