By CHUSA SICHONE –
SABLE Transport Limited has offered 1,500 hectares of land to villagers in Rufunsa district to finally end a 15-year old land dispute in the area.
Surveyors from the Ministry of Lands, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection are currently in the area putting up beacons to demarcate the land in question.
Sable Transport Limited managing director Iqbal Alloo who confirmed the development in an interview with the Sunday Times during the week said the beneficiaries included people in Kanyetu and Mweshang’ombe chiefdoms.
The settlement of the dispute followed the intervention by then Lands, Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Minister Harry Kalaba who visited Rufunsa district on January 10, 2014.
Mr Kalaba, who is now Foreign Affairs Minister, gave a 20-day ultimatum to Mr Alloo in liaison with the lands commissioner Barnaby Mulenga and the principal land surveyor Charles Pole to resolve the long-standing dispute with the villagers.
This followed complaints by villagers as well as MMD Rufunsa Member of Parliament Kenneth Chipungu that Sable Transport Limited had allegedly encroached on their land.
Mr Alloo said he had complied with the Minister’s directive and that the beneficiaries were happy with the outcome.
“We met the villagers, we all shook hands and everybody is happy. We have agreed on the parameters,” Mr Alloo said.
