Mulli, Thyolo farmers battle over land

Daggers have been drawn in Thyolo where 201 smallholder tea and subsistence farmers and Mulli Brothers Limited (MBL) are battling over a 271-acre piece of land.

The concerned farmers say the land, located in Mphanje Block next to Smallholder Tea Company (Steco) in Senior Chief Kapichi’s area, was given to them during the Kamuzu Banda administration in 1978.

But MBL managing director Leston Mulli claims the land is part of Steco which his company bought in the early 1990s.

William Dangwe, one of the affected farmers, told officials from the Catholic Commission of Justice and Peace (CCJP) on Thursday that between 1978 and 1979 the then estate manager — a Mr. Nkhimbwa — uprooted crops of people surrounding Naming’omba Tea Estate on instructions from his white employers.

Dangwe, who was Thyolo MCP district chairman at the time, said in 1979 the late Kamuzu Banda visited the land under contention to appreciate the challenges local people were facing in the area.

“After the inspection, he addressed a rally at Luchenza where he officially announced that the then lessees had sold a portion of the estate to government for distribution to farmers whose crops were uprooted,” he explained.

He stated that Banda instructed the Ministry of Lands to allocate 131 acres to smallholder farmers and 140 acres to maize growers.

According to Dangwe, beneficiary farmers were asked to make small contributions for the purchase of the land through what was termed less capital deductions, which were going into government coffers as it had already sorted lessees out.

Dangwe could not remember when government finished deducting them, but documents in our possession indicate that the farmers finished their contributions in the early 1990s.

Brandishing a lease document dated 1979, Reverend Gerald Chibisa said Mulli was one of the buyers of their tea by virtue of his proximity to their gardens.

Said Chibisa: “I am very disturbed to hear that the buyer of our tea is now claiming ownership of our land. Were we committing a mistake to sell him our tea?”

Group village heads Maida and Kapichi alleged that Mulli has been sending ‘some boys’ and an official from the Ministry of Lands—Witness Mbendela—to persuade chiefs in the area to sign documents that would automatically transfer ownership of the land to him.

Senior Chief Kapichi also confirmed to have been approached by the said ‘some boys’, saying he turned them away after they failed to produce documents supporting Mulli’s ownership claims.

“People are facing a shortage of farmland here. How can he be so heartless to grab the only piece of land poor farmers are relying on?” he asked.

Mbendela confirmed accompanying MBL employees to inspect the land.

“Every lands officer is mandated to do that before issuing a title deed. I must state here that I didn’t issue the lease because MBL officials didn’t provide documents to ascertain their ownership of the land,” explained Mbendela.

Mulli, however, insisted that the land belongs to him.

“That land belongs to us and we won’t let it go!” he said.

Steco general manager, Abel Jafuli, confirmed instructing his charges to ask the said chiefs to sign lease application documents.

“We’re simply processing lease documents for the land, which belongs to Steco. If the land belongs to someone else, how could they let us hire a guard to provide security to the land?

“By asking chiefs to sign our lease application forms, we’re simply following procedures to have the land officially recognised as MBL’s. And we’ll have the documents processed whether someone likes it or not,” said Jafuli.

But CCJP project officer for the Tilitonse-funded project, Peter Muyaya, warned both parties to avoid taking a confrontational approach to the issue.

Muyaya said much as CCJP appreciates the challenges people in the area face to access farmland, he would not want the issue result in bloodshed.

His warning followed threats by the farmers that they would mobilise themselves to deal with Steco’s guards.

“CCJP would like to see a peaceful end to this wrangle. We don’t want bloodshed. Together with chiefs, we’ll not rest until we see that justice is done. We’ll follow this matter to the latter,” said Muyaya.