By NOMSA NKANA
GOVERNMENT says it regrets the shooting to death of two people and injuring of another at the hands of Zambia National Service (ZNS)officers as they tried to remove illegal settlers from the ZNS Airport Farms in Chongwe’s Kampasa area.
Chief Government spokesperson Kennedy Sakeni said in an interview that the “excessive force” used in the unfortunate incident should have been used only as a “last resort” and perhaps only when dealing with “dangerous” criminals.
Mr Sakeni said it is regrettable that the incident has occurred at a time Government, through the Ministry of Defence, had allocated up to 50 hectares of land from ZNS to the locals in liaison with Chongwe District Council.
“Unfortunately, some unscrupulous and selfish individuals have further encroached, taken advantage and started selling some of the land,” he said.
Mr Sakeni said the nation may wish to know that the problem at ZNS Airport Farms has been a long-standing issue since the year 2010, adding that some of the Kampasa community settled on ZNS land had further encroached and resisted vacation.
Mr Sakeni said some unscrupulous people claiming to belong to certain political parties are riding on their so-called ‘party affiliation’to grab pieces of land which legally belong to other people.
Mr Sakeni said there are too many land problems in the country where people who have title to land are being harassed by squatters.
He, however, said that does not mean anybody, including law enforcement officers, should use excessive force to control land wrangles.
“It is important for our local authorities and especially Ministry of Lands [to] work hard so that the issue of land is resolved in cases where groups of people start getting land without considering it could be on title belonging to individuals or institutions,” he said.
Mr Sakeni, who said such cases have become rampant especially in the greater city of Lusaka, also said people with no land should desist from taking matters into their own hands by grabbing land which is not theirs and settle there.
He said such people must know they are illegal squatters adding that no-one should break the law with impunity.
Government has since instituted investigations into the incident and wishes to appeal to the people of Kampasa, to remain calm.
And Cavendish University Students Union president John Luneta has condemned the killing of the two people in Kampasa saying the action sends a wrong signal to the international community about Zambia.
Mr Luneta also said it is unacceptable for a country like Zambia to have land wrangles when it has enough land including in Chongwe where the incident happened.
He said it was wrong for ZNS officers to use live ammunition to scatter a crowd that was not even armed.
“We feel a notice of eviction would have been more appropriate,” he said.
On Friday morning, ZNS officers opened fire and killed two squatters and injured another when the illegal settlers resisted eviction.
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