Maravi

Indian firm displaces 400 Masaiti families

Indian firm displaces 400 Masaiti families
By Darious Kapembwa in Kafulafuta
Thu 09 June 2011, 03:59 CAT

OVER 400 families at Alitoni village in Kafulafuta Cons-tituency in Masaiti district of Copperbelt rural have been displaced from their land without compensation by an Indian firm to pave way for the construction of a Lime plant. Nikant Mining Limited has already graded a huge chunk of villagers’ fields destroying the farming area claiming that they have authority of senior chief Chiwala.

According to representatives from the village committee constituted to speak on behalf of the affected villagers, the chief forcibly notified them about the need to relocate to the rocky lake Chilengwa area.

“They have evicted us from our ancestral land to Chilengwa area, where there is no farming land, no water for our gardening and we have animals…we need compensation for our land so that we can find alternative land of our own not the chief’s choice,” said Goodson Chepeshi, a committee member.

Another committee member Livius Langeni said the villagers were being threatened so that they don’t raise any questions over their land.

“We have sent emissaries to the palace so that we can meet the chief to discuss the matter but nothing has come out and people have been threatened in all means possible so that they don’t raise questions about the behavior of the chief.

The chief has refused to talk to us apart from commanding us to obey his orders but we are ready to die for our land,” said Langeni, who is also the eldest son to the village head woman at the same village.

The villagers said they were not opposed to development but contended that development should take on board concerns of the local people.

“We can’t be living like refugees in our own land and this government is quiet, let them pay us money before we vacate so that we can find land maybe in Kasama because here our own chief with whoever he is working with has sold us for three pieces of silver,” they said.

Two site supervisors, Tharon and Mohan, who were in the company of the chief’s retainer Fidelis Kasongo, said they had nothing to do with the villagers because as far as they were concerned, they were dealing directly with the chief.

“We will create employment here for the villagers what more do you want?” asked Tharon.

But Kasongo sided with the people saying their concerns were genuine as nobody had been compensated, which ignited more anger from the two Indians.

“What I can say is that the chief is in the fore-front of this project, people’s complaints are genuine because I have also heard just a rumour that they will relocate to another area but no compensation,” said Kasongo.

There was no comment from chief Chiwala as he has returned back to Nairobi, Kenya where he is first secretary at the Zambian embassy.

A similar situation is obtaining at Majaliwa village a Kilometre apart in the same locality where a cement firm, Dangote of Nigeria, is developing a factory.

Labels: CHIEFS, FDI, INDIA, KAFULAFUTA, LAND RIGHTS, MASAITI DISTRICT, NEOLIBERALISM

posted by MrK @ 6:20 PM