By Duncan Mlanjira
Following reports that government has sold Livimbo school campus to a person of Asian origin, some concerned citizens have asked the authorities to revisit title deeds to lands that were politically grabbed from Asian owners by the Malawi Congress Party-led government.
Vuwa Kaunda, flanked by his principal secretaries
Reports trending on social media are that government has sold the public school to an Asian, who has told school management to vacate the premises as he wants to pull down the public infrastructure in order to elect his own.
Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Symon Vuwa Kaunda has vehemently refuted the reports that Livimbo school campus has been sold.
But a post on social media by a concerned citizen, Dickens Mwambazi based in Lilongwe, asks the government to dig more on who owns the land on which Livimbo campus is.
Namiwawa wasn’t formerly called Dharap
“Unless the title deeds are good, government can be deemed wrong in selling Livimbo school to whosoever.
“Otherwise, what we call Livimbo School was an Asian (Indian) owned school at Bwalo la Njovu, Area 2 in Lilongwe. The original name of that school was Korkri Primary School.
“I went to Korkri for my standards one to four. Korkri had just been ‘nationalised’ — that was in 1972.
Mponda was previously known as Osman Gani
“Similar Asian owned schools are Limbe Primary, Dharap, Osman Gani in Zomba now Mponda [were also nationalised] — their fate can be the same if the title deeds are not good.
“Remember Kamuzu had just decreed that these Asian schools become public schools.
“If government or the Ministry of Education did not change the ownership titles, and the real owners are claiming their property, do not call it corruption.
Capital Hill must investigate
“These schools, like Livimbo, were politically grabbed by government from Asian owners.
“While at Korkri School, now Livimbo, we were learning with Indian children. It was their school.
“My Headmaster, the last Indian, was Mr. Tharker. The Tharkers are now owners of Universal Trading, a big hardware business in Limbe,” said the concerned citizen.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development visited both Livimbo primary and secondary schools to see for himself the actual situation on the ground on Wednesday.
“These allegations are baseless, there is no way government can sell this school, you have seen that the school is operating normally,” Vuwa Kaunda told the media.
“Remember, His Excellency the President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika is advancing education by constructing more schools so that citizens of this country have access to quality education so how can the same government sell this school,” queried the minister, who was accompanied by the PS for Lands Joe Mwandidya and PS for Education Justin Saidi.
In earlier reports, Vuwa Kaunda said the government is looking for the undisclosed person who purportedly bought Livimbo in order to trace the fake sellers of the land.
A clarification report from one of the civil society organisation vindicates Vuwa Kaunda, saying Livimbo has not been sold by the government.
“Facts are that there was a corrupt syndicate which included Ministry of Lands official and also some Asians, who have been selling land using fake and illegal documents.
“These guys came up with fake documents and sold Livimbo to another Asian person.
“What the Ministry is going to do is to arrest the buyer of Livimbo and follow the trail. So as far as Government is concerned, Livimbo is not for sale and will never be sold.
“Based on the above, we as CSOs need to follow up and ensure that this is put on record.
“Further, we must demand a land audit for most land and infrastructure which I believe that Asians have acquired fraudulently and if they have structures must be demolished.
“Further to this, there are also reports of lots of public land being sold to politicians and this needs to also be dealt with and exposed,” says the report from the CSOs.
The issue of the selling of the public school was exposed on Tuesday when officials from the Ministry of Lands met the Parliamentary Legal Affairs Committee.