Kafue DC fights to save houses
KAFUE District Commissioner (DC) Joseph Kamana’s attempts to stop the demolition of illegal structures on Zambia Railways land failed as the company went ahead to raze unfinished buildings on railway line reserves.
The DC pleaded with the Railway company to spare homes where families are living because of the rain season now in full force.
This was when Zambia Railways swung into action to demolish in Kafue’s Flush Butt area where the local council has given out plots on railway line reserves land.
Speaking when ZRL acting central region manager Kingfred Chanda paid a courtesy call him, the DC said that there was need to move away from the trend of executing demolition exercise during the rain season.
Mr. Kamana said if ZRL went ahead with the demolition the people in Flush Butt area would ran to his office looking for help if there their structures were pulled down.
“Being D.C. people look up to us to say what is happening in the district and most of the people will run to the D.C. and say we have this problem, so we need a way before we can implement certain projects,” he said.
The DC explained that this was the second time the incidence was happening in his district and again during the rain season.
The DC accepted that the ZRL land been encroached but pleaded on behalf of the locals to spare families because of the rain season.
Meanwhile Mr. Chanda explained to the DC that the structures which were marked for demolition were those that had been developed up to knee level, and not those that had been fully developed.
He said this was because people had invested in those structures and that there was need to engage them at a later stage so that the issue could be discussed with stake holders involved.
“What we are trying right now is not necessarily to deal with those that are advanced in their development. We are not going to touch them for now,”