The Government of Malawi is going to demolish informal ["illegal"]
housing in the cities, like the government of zimbabwe did. it will
be interesting to see what the global reaction to this will be if
they go about it.

the bbc article posted below is a pretty decent report and is much
tamer about the same issue than it was when reporting what happened
in zimbabwe. there's no mention of human rights in this article at
all, or the plight of the poor...? differences...?

i think african governments need to address housing issues, as a
priority and not resort to being reactive when crises get out of
hand. like other development challenges, they are complex and require
complex solutions. it doesn't help that the rest of the world uses
these incidents to promote a specific political idea or agenda!

d.





http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4748279.stm
Deadline for Malawi demolitions
By Raphael Tenthani
BBC, Lilongwe



Hundreds of Malawians have been given two weeks to leave their houses
in the capital before they are demolished.
Housing official Felix Tukula told the BBC the government wanted to
evict those living illegally in Lilongwe on land meant for industrial
developments.
Mr Tukula said the authorities would use force to remove residents if
they refused to leave voluntarily.
The ultimatum follows a similar operation in neighbouring Zimbabwe,
which has left some 700,000 homeless.
The Zimbabwe demolitions have been widely condemned in the West, but
most African countries have refused to criticise President Robert
Mugabe's government.


Town-planning

Some residents of the affected areas, called locally Baghdad and
Dubai, insist that they will not move as they have nowhere else to go.

"Our problem here is lack of land," one woman told government officials.

"Imagine you have a family and dependants but you have nowhere to
stay. So if idle land has been found somewhere we have to share it,"
she said.
Mr Tukula, however, insisted that the structures must be demolished
and said that because they were illegal, those affected would not be
compensated.
Wananga Mbeleka, regional manager for the state-owned Malawi Housing
Corporation, said illegal settlements were a big problem and were
greatly affecting town planning and the provision of services such as
water and electricity.
"This problem of land encroachment has basically affected our land
bank where we have future development plans for housing and [other]
non-housing real [estate] properties like community services,
churches, police units and health centres," he said.
Local MP Boniface Kadzamira, from the main opposition Malawi Congress
Party, said the former government was partly to blame because it had
stopped enforcing land laws.
"It's a big problem," he said. "It started in 1997 and the previous
regime neglected this issue.
"People have got used to this; they think getting a plot without
proper procedures is a normal thing."


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4748279.stm

Published: 2005/08/05 10:12:40 GMT