Maravi

Farmer in Chalimbana evicts family from land

Farmer in Chalimbana evicts family from land
By Ntalasha Mutale
Wednesday January 30, 2008 [03:00]

A family of farm number 313A in Lusaka’s Chalimbana area was on Friday evicted by a farmer from land they had occupied for over 55 years. First lady Maureen Mwanawasa on her way to her Mipachima farm, found the Nyendwa family and their belongings by the road, where they had stayed for three days after the three houses they owned on the farm were demolished.

And Attorney General Mumba Malila said the family had the right to the land as long as they had lived there for over 20 years. In an interview yesterday, one of the occuppiers of the land Joseph Nyendwa said the three houses the family owned were demolished last Thursday morning by the police, with an order from a lawyer Andrew Howard without a warning or notice.

Nyendwa explained that part of the land was given to his father Petro,
who was a farm manager on the land that previously belonged to a woman called Fenella Pastel as part of his benefits, after he retired.

“Mrs Pastel had given part of this land, the sub division A, to my father because she could not afford to give him his benefits after our father retired. My father died in 1986 and my brother Abeaty Nyendwa continued managing the farm,” Nyendwa said. “After Mrs Pastel died on January 6, 2001, a man named Charles Mellace came from South Africa and claimed that he was the executor of the will which we never saw.”
He said Mellace instructed Pastel’s lawyer Andrew Howard to pay off the workers, saying he was going to buy the farm through Howard.

And Nyendwa said the first lady had instructed the family to stay on the land until the Human Rights Commission visited them and the matter was sorted out.
Maureen provided the stranded family with food worth over K400, 000.

But a lawyer from Howard’s law firm, who did not want to be named, said the case over the land had gone to court and Abeaty Nyendwa had represented the family in a case in which he lost to Howard.

She said judgment had been passed and the Nyendwa family had been asked to move from the land.

She said the police at Chalimbana police post had a court order to demolish their houses. But when the police at Chalimbana were consulted, they denied knowing anything about the demolition of the houses at the farm.

But Malila said the family had the right to the land through what was known as prescription as long as they had stayed on that land for over 20 years.

Labels: LAND REFORM

posted by MrK @ 3:32 AM