by Susan Mwape
Zambia
Since last month, the Lusaka City Council (LCC) has been demolishing illegal settlements in the City of Lusaka. The City Council has earmarked even more area to be razed despite the pleas by the residents to formalize these areas.
The ongoing demolition has left a good number of people in the city homeless, as most of the people whose homes have been destroyed say they were not given notice. Youths have cried foul over this exercise by the City Council. They have argued that it is the council’s poor planning that has caused the mushrooming of illegal settlements.
“The best the council can do is to legalise these settlements instead of demolishing and leaving people homeless,” said Theresa from the Bauleni Compound in Lusaka.
According to Charles of the Youth Knowledge Network, the council should start by demolishing the bars that have risen in a number of townships within Lusaka. He said it has become normal for bar owners to open their bars as early as 5 am and go until way after midnight.
“How come the council is failing to demolish these bars that are a hazard to the youth and school going children?” Charles asked.
He cited an example that had happened some time back, an incident in which some residents of the Soweto Compound demolished a bar themselves that was supposedly not preventing underage children from entering its premises. The police came after this incident and arrested the angry residents.
Charles further explained that when residents complain to the council of such cases, the LCC does not respond, yet they are quick to destroy and leave people homeless.
“It isn’t their [the residents] fault that people are building illegal settlements. It’s the Government’s systems and they should tackle it from that end. When they want to be elected to power, they go and tell the party carders to start allocating land to the residents. Why does the council wait until people have built to start demolishing structure? Why don’t they sort out the systems first? What do they think will happen to the people that have been left homeless now,” Tebisa Saluzyinga wondered.
The ongoing demolition of houses has seen Mr. Micheal Sata, leader of the Patriotic Front (PF), an opposing party that lost in the elections last year, plan on suing the state on behalf of the people over the houses that have been demolished.
On the other hand, Mr. Henry Machina, National Coordinator of the Zambia Land Alliance, a non-governmental organization based in Lusaka, has said the Government should continue its cleaning system of land administration through decentralization.
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