Mutharika pacify land dispute in Malawi tea estates: Thyolo and Mulanje

President Peter Mutharika on Thursday summoned leaders of the Thyolo-based People’s Land Organisation (PLO) Charles Mchacha and Bon Kalindo of the Citizens for the Protection of Mulanje (CPM) at Sanjika Palace in Blantyre to discuss the long-standing land wrangle between communities and tea estate owners in populous Thyolo and Mulanje districts where most of the arable land is taken up by tea estates.

MP Kalindo: Cease fire
MP Kalindo: Cease fire

Some concerned citizens have been threatening to invade the farms and grab the land.

Mutharika held a closed-door meeting with the two parties and State House press office did not give any to the invited media.

But  comedian-turned-politician Kalindo told reporters that the President invited them for discussion after learning about the issues in the media and wanted to pacify the matter.

Kalindo has been mobilizing the people of tea growing district of Thyolo to stand up against commercial land owners and occupy the land which he argues “rightfully belongs to them.”

Mchacha on the other hand has been fighting against Kalindo’s agitation for land occupation and branded Mulanje South member of Parliament (Democratic Progressive Party-DPP), who is also DPP deputy spokesman, as an opportunist.

In an interview with Nyasa Times, Kalindo hailed President Mutharika for his intervention, saying his “wisdom and guidance” has helped to pacify the matter.

On the other hand, Mchacha said Mutharika have saved the situation in what he feared was a ticking time bomb.

Besides the land issue, the meeting also touched on the welfare of people living in the two tea-growing areas as well as the damage and deforestation in Mulanje Mountain.

Malawi’s tea industry, started by colonial masters in the 1800s, occupies thousands of hectares believed to have been grabbed from natives. The industry is also one of the most productive in the world.

PLO has been agitating for the local people’s occupation of all idle tea estates land in the districts since its establishment in 2009, and has been demanding that estate owners pay £65 (about K53 000) per acre per year for all used colonial estate land from 1914 to date.<

The organisation has also been demanding from the estate owners a wage rate of £6.13 per hour (about K5 000) per individual for those involved in thangata (forced labour) between 1914 and 1963. There are10 big estates in Thyolo and Mulanje which started their farming during the colonial era.

While CPM has been petitioning tea estate owners to allocate all idle lands, discharge social responsibility functions and improve the working conditions for their workers.

Follow and Subscribe Nyasa TV :

Sharing is caring!

Follow us in Twitter
19 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Commenter
Commenter
8 years ago

Even if these guys owned the bloody land they wouldn’t know what to do with it!! its just empty noise!!

Mj chole boy Precious malunga.

Go go winiko.

MaKopa
MaKopa
8 years ago

Shaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa alien when did you realize that. Maravi achewa

Cia America
Cia America
8 years ago

mind your own business anthu amaboma ena osaziwika inu,malowa ndi a anthu aku mulanje osati inu,achewa or atumbuka ayi

Naphurukota
Naphurukota
8 years ago

Big up MP Kalindo!!!!! It is our pride land.

Chabwera ku manda
Chabwera ku manda
8 years ago

Vincent Wandale yemweyo, azungu achoke basi, muisova

Rodgers Banda
Rodgers Banda
8 years ago

The big tea farms are np longer productive but parasitic. Economy os running nose down.

Khodoba
Khodoba
8 years ago

Lazy Thyolo bones always wanting free things. Inuyo simunachokele ku Mozambique kuti muziti it’s your land. Mxi!!!

Malawiyano
Malawiyano
8 years ago

He wants to be another chilembwe .

CHITAKALE
CHITAKALE
8 years ago

Mind that these tea estates owners are also citizens of this country and they have a rights to own lands,and as Malawians we shall not want the misbehaviour Lomwes you doing to these white people.Where were you all the time?Lomwes are illeterate and they are full of jelouses.Why can’t you concetrate to your motherfucker cabinet instead wasting your time quarelling with whites for the land.Vuto ndi loti a Lomwe aberekana kwambiri kotero malo olima alibe

Read previous post:
Mafco claims double over Bankers to move second: Malawi TNM Super League

Salima based Mafco FC on Mothers’ Day claimed a double over Silver Strikers after whipping the Bankers 1-0 in a...

Close