When land ownership issues refused to die

Fresh from 2019 revelations that public land at Livimbo Primary and Community Day Secondary schools in Lilongwe was sold to two Malawian businesspeople of Asian decent, land ownership issues refused to die in 2020.

While then minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Symon Vuwa-Kaunda was questioning title deeds claiming part of Livimbo School land, our sister paper, Weekend Nation of February 2020 established that he had just approved the sale of a piece of Forestry Department land in Blantyre to then fellow minister Charles Mchacha.

Vuwa-Kaunda granted Mchacha, who is also the then governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) regional governor (South), permission to buy Plot Number LW1366 at Kanjedza Forest in Limbe, Blantyre.

Documents authorising Mchacha to lease 1.171 hectares of leasehold land for 99 years beginning July 1 2019 were approved by Kaunda 24 days before Lilongwe City South West member of Parliament (MP) Nancy Tembo, then a member of Parliamentary Committee of Legal Affairs, first broke the Livimbo land saga in Parliament on November 12 2019.

Vuwa-Kaunda’s Principal Secretary (PS) at the time, Joseph Mwandidya, admitted that the ministry was rotten because there was too much corruption.

When the publication inquired on the sale, Mchacha defended his acquisition of the land, arguing that his was not the only piece of land that was sold to individuals in the area.

He said: “More than 1 000 plots have been sold and it is the Blantyre Lands office that is allocating the land.”

Fast forward to August 7 2020, Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) wrote the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) to probe Vuwa-Kaunda and Mchacha on the Kanjedza Forestry land ownership and other individuals for suspected dubious land allocation.

The coalition, through its whistleblower initiative, wanted individuals that acquired public land through political connections to be probed.

A day after HRDC issued a statement pushing ACB to probe the former Cabinet ministers, another massive land scam was exposed at Mpemba Staff Development Institute (SDI) in Blantyre. SDI management had a rude awakening to find that a private developer, Dr Smart  Chokhoto of Lilongwe, was on site demarcating plots and selling them to individuals without the institution’s knowledge.

The development came after the college, which is under the Department of Human Resource Management and Development (DHRMD) in the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), had earlier advised its mother ministry of its interest to start constructing 11 staff houses on the same land.

The land ownership saga did not shock SDI management alone, but also surrounding chiefs who lodged a complaint to ACB to probe how Chokhoto acquired the land.

The land ownership wrangle did not spare former president Peter Mutharika and some local councils.

On September 30, Ombudsman Martha Chizuma demanded a detailed report from Mangochi district commissioner on private lakeshore land where Mutharika built his retirement home.

This followed a complaint filed by Albert Viola, who claimed to have co-owned the land with his brother Ernest Viola. He believed that Mangochi DC abused its office as the sale of the land to Mutharika could not have proceeded without the facilitation and enablement of the council.

But in his response on October 8, Mangochi DC Raphael Piringu said the land was bought by Moyenda Mutharika and not the former president.

Mutharika’s land ownership issue came three months after Karonga District Council executive committee resolved to suspend its three councillors, including council chairperson Steve Simsokwe, for allegedly pocketing K2.4 million after selling council land to vendors illegally.

In a related development, Blantyre City South East MP Sameer Suleman told Parliament in October that some foreign nationals were grabbing land in towns and cities at the expense of Malawians. He claimed that 80 percent of land in Limbe in Blantyre was owned by two people.

Suleman’s claims came months after Ministry of Lands launched an inquiry to establish how Lilongwe District Council awarded 1 000 plots to a Mr Diabi at Likuni in Lilongwe between 2006 and 2007.

Following the reported cases of land ownership cases, President Lazarus Chakwera on October 21 ordered a review of all land laws enacted in 2017, blaming them for the country’s chaotic scramble for land by both individuals and businesses.

On November 29, ACB arrested Mchacha in connection with the Forestry land he bought in Blantyre. Just 24 hours later, the graft-busting body also arrested Ministry of Defence PS Bright Kumwembe who was PS for Lands when Mchacha acquired the land. The bureau then arrested Kaunda on December 8 in connection with the matter.

The State charged Mchacha with four counts, including inducing public officers to corruptly perform their duties to award him a plot, Kumwembe was charged with two counts, including neglect of duty and Kaunda, who was released on bail a day after his arrest, was charged with corruption and abuse of office.

Kaunda is expected to appear before court on January 6 2021 for plea on the charges.