Hundreds of people who claim to be landless on Tuesday stormed the Kasungu District Council offices threatening to be holding vigil at the offices until land is found for them.
The people—who are mostly ex-employees of Press Agriculture Limited (PAL), their children and wives—said they wanted answers from the DC’s office a year after they held a meeting with officials from the Office of President and Cabinet (OPC) on the same land issue.
The men and women claimed they are living in temporary shelters and are in need of permanent homes.
According to Shadreck Kaifa, who led the group, on March 23 last year the group held a meeting with officials from OPC who said they had been sent by the President to hear the people’s grievances.
“The officials assured us that they had a true picture of the problem and they would deal with the problem urgently. However, it is now a year and nothing has been done,
“We are suffering a lot as if we are not Malawians. We have no land to farm, no livelihood, we are being called refugees and we even have to pay to bury our dead relatives in cemeteries,” said Kaifa.
At the DC’s office, the people presented a petition which proposed that they should be given answers to their problems right away failing which they would hold a vigil at the office until they are given land to farm and stay.
The petition also said if the government fails to allocate them land, it should take them to Dzaleka Refugees Camp in Dowa.
Kasungu District Commissioner James Kanyangalazi said there are many people who have no land in the district due to PAL’s inactiveness; but the issue is being sorted out.
“The office got this issue about three years ago and it was forwarded to OPC. Luckily something is being done by the OPC through this office.
“Soon the DC, the OPC and other concerned parties will sit down and see how best these people can be assisted. However, they have to take heart as everything is being done to have them acquire land,” said Kanyangalazi.
The people say they were taken from other districts to work in PAL estates, while some claim to have been brought their parents when they were young and others were born on the estates.
With the tobacco industry facing some problems in the early 2000, PAL had to scale down its activities which led to retrenchment of the tenants.
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