Squatters in Chipata start building houses on disputed land

People staying at the controversial land of Wachepa in Chipata have started constructing houses.
Headwoman Wachepa, Elizabeth Chirwa told Breeze News that the people cannot continue living in worn out tents where they have stayed for the past four years.
Mrs. Chirwa has maintained that no one will shift from the area, despite government having secured a new place for the villagers at M’duli in Chief Mnukwa’s area.
The headwoman says that she has not been visited by any government official since last year.
She says that government has also stopped giving relief food to the villagers, but that that does not bother them because they have harvested enough maize for consumption.
The Wachepa land wrangle in Chief Kapatamoyo’s area started way back in 2011 when the villagers had their houses demolished by the bailiffs, following a court order, which ruled that the land belonged to Kabalika Nkhwengwe.
Since then government promised to purchase the land for the villagers but later decided to resettle the squatters in Chief Mnukwa’s area where it bought land.