MEDIA STATEMENT
ActionAid welcomes commitment by government to prohibit displacement of communities in Musele Chiefdom
ActionAid today welcomed assurances by the Minister of Mines, Hon. Christopher Yaluma that communities located in the areas surrounding the Kalumbila Mine in Northwestern Province would not be displaced.
This follows a question raised in parliament on Tuesday regarding current lobbying of influential individuals by Canadian company First Quantum Minerals (FQM) to obtain a title to over 500 square kilometres of land. Honourable Yaluma responded that he was not aware of this lobbying; but that government would not allow any displacement to take place.
He also confirmed that an inter-ministerial committee has met and resolved the issues around Kalumbila and that that the issue of land allocation has been delegated to local government.
FQM acquired 518 square kilometres of land in the Musele Chiefdom through an agreement with Senior Chief Musele in 2011, however a ministerial task force later determined that Zambia’s Lands Act forbids any chief from selling more than 250 hectares and that only the president can authorise the sale.
ActionAid is supporting communities in the Musele Chiefdom to engage with FQM and government over this issue through the Musele-Nkisu community taskforce.
ActionAid Zambia Country Director Pamela Chisanga said:
“We welcome this commitment by the Minister as it is vital that communities are not displaced from the land that they depend on for their livelihood, and that any displacement should be discussed and agreed with communities and adequately compensated.
“We trust that the ministerial committee resolutions on Kalumbila have been completed in respect of the Musele community submissions submitted on 26 March 2013 and that no unilateral decisions have been taken by the government in terms of the size of land, equity and nature of the compensation.
“We hope that respect has been given to the fact that this is customary land and that the community’s input is necessary before any public announcements are made. This is because time must be provided to the community – who have so far not been engaged by the ministerial committee.
“We are aware that the community at Musele is not aware of many of the decisions that have been made and read or hear about these decisions through the media. We wish to implore the Minister to go a step further to ensure the meaningful dialogue with the community, the company and government so that all controversies regarding the Kalumbila project are resolved.
“The community so far seems to have been left alone to deal with a powerful multinational company while government seemingly took a back seat. We are happy that government has risen to the challenge and we hope to see this matter expeditiously concluded so that the people of Musele can carry on with their lives that have been disrupted over the last few years due to uncertainty and fear of displacement.”
Thank God there is no picture of that Pamela Chisanga, who is on sale.
I hope. Govt will and anybody concerned will look into the concerns of us the rural poor here in lufwanyama. The new farming broke is robbing us the natives of our inheritance without any compensation at all. Were will we go if we are chased from our village, a land that our lamba ancestors left us!
mention your inheritance properly in terms of property and money, not just dream, what is it? if you want to live in the bush, there are plenty of them in Zambia for free. Dont just scream when development comes your, just because you cant see it clearly, you scream mutule. Those children you are sending to school, hope you are, they need that. Actually stop making merry if you are against development. There is a forest near bashi Kangwa, by the shop near pa chulu, wherebyou can stay ok. bakaamba with love
Displacement from what? that should be the question. There shall never be any development without a people being displaced to start with. Lobby should be about what benefit those being displaced are going to get against their current ‘homes/lives’ and Zambias. As much as Zambia should be a tourist capital of Africa, it needs to develop. How about if those people are built houses better than those shelters they leave in, that is how Copperbelt developed into being what it is today. As long as such mindsets continue their unnecessary advocacy, they will continue undermining the development. Put up a business case as to why you are against displacement, then we can argue on merits and demerits. dont hide in those NGOs, when you are not