The Urban Land Question (1)

Habitat International 48 (2015) 209e218

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The urban land question in Africa: The case of urban land conflicts in
the City of Lusaka, 100 years after its founding
Horman Chitonge a, *, Orleans Mfune b
a
b

Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7700, Cape Town, South Africa
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Zambia, P.O Box 32379, Lusaka, Zambia

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:

Received 10 September 2014
Received in revised form
9 March 2015
Accepted 27 March 2015
Available online

Pressure on urban land is growing in many cities across Africa and the developing world. This is creating
various challenges around urban land administration, planning and development. Growing pressure on
urban land is manifesting in various ways including the mounting urban land conflicts. In this paper we
look at the urban land question in Lusaka, focussing on urban land conflicts. What we have found in this
study is that the reportedly growing invasion of vacant or idle land in Lusaka is a more complex issue
which involves not only the desperate urban poor looking for land to squat on, but also well-resourced
groups, who sometimes hire poor people to invade the land on which they later develop residential and
commercial properties. We argue in the paper that the prevalence of these conflicts points to the gap in
the administration, planning and delivery of land and the accompanying services.
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Urban land conflict
Lusaka

Informal settlement
Urban planning
Land invasion

1. Introduction
The orthodox land question in Africa has largely focused on the
rural land dynamics. In its classical formulation, the land question is
strongly (if not entirely) associated with issues of unequal access,
distribution, ownership, use and administration of land in rural
areas. Urban areas are generally perceived as ‘regulated spaces’
where various dimensions of the land question have been effectively negotiated through both the market and state intervention.
Since the land question has been widely associated with the
countryside, there has been little attention in the literature devoted
to the different dimensions of the urban land question (Obala &
Mattingly, 2013). Debates on issues of land in urban areas are
often restricted to matters of planning, housing and informal settlement. Rarely are questions about equality of access, ownership
and distribution of urban land raised.
But as the pressure on urban land in most African cities builds
up, due to the robustly growing population as well as the current
episode of sustained economic growth in most countries, the urban

land question is resolutely imposing itself on the urban spaces, in
various forms such as land invasions. In this paper we look at the

* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: horman.chitonge@uct.ac.za (H. Chitonge), omfune@gmail.
com, orleans.mfune@unza.zm (O. Mfune).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2015.03.012
0197-3975/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

emerging land question in the City of Lusaka (the capital city of
Zambia), focussing on one specific way in which the urban land
question is manifesting itselfd informal urban land invasion and
the associated conflicts. In this paper, we show that while the land
question in the City of Lusaka is an outcome of the makeshift and
lope-sided nature of colonial social engineering, the post-colonial
state in Zambia has done little to decolonise both the conception
and the structures of urban planning and settlement patterns. In
this paper, we define urban land conflicts as social and legal tensions manifested in concurrent claims over a piece of land, disputed
ownership and other forms of contest around urban land (see
Lombard, 2013).

2. Methodology
This paper draws mainly from face-to-face interviews with
residents of Mtendere East, conducted in January and July 2014. We
also conducted interviews with leaders of different opposition
parties, as well as the City of Lusaka officials, including officers from
the planning and housing department and the informal settlement
unit. In total we interviewed 18 Mtendere East residents, randomly
interviewed, since there is no list of residents to sample from. In
addition to face-to-face interviews, we also conducted informal
conversations with several residents in various sections of the
settlement. We also had interviews with two residents of the
nearby low density suburb of Ibex Hill who have been living in the

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area before the settlement began. The paper also draws from secondary data and land conflict cases before the courts of law,
particularly cases before the Lusaka High Court and the Lands
Tribunal.

3. The land question(s) in Africa
The land question in Africa is widely formulated as a by-product
of colonial rule on the one hand, and on the other hand, the failure
of the post-colonial African states to implement radical land reforms which would effectively address colonial legacies around
land distribution and administration. For some analysts the existence of the land question in Africa today is a reminder of the
incomplete process of decolonisation on the continent (Moyo,
2008). In its standard formulation, the land question in Africa is
widely conceptualised in terms of inequalities regarding ownership
of, access to and control over land in the country side. For instance,
it has been argued that, the land question and persistent rural
poverty in Africa are fundamentally issues of social justice and
equity (Moyo, 2004). This formulation of the land question, however, is more prevalent in southern Africa and some parts of East
and North Africa which had large European settler populations
during colonial rule, resulting in large scale land dispossession of
indigenous African peoples (Moyo, 2008; Mafeje, 2003).
While land access and ownership is also skewed and unequal in
most urban areas in Africa, mainstream debates on the land question
have often downplayed its urban manifestations (Obala & Mattingly,
2013). There seem to be a widespread assumption that the land
question is mute in an urban context. The idea of the land question

being a rural matter is implicit in the argument that there has been
no land question in Africa except in a few countries with large settler
communities such as South Africa, Namibia, Kenya, Algeria and
Zimbabwe (Mafeje, 2003). But as some analysts have argued,
To assume that a land question in Africa can only arise out of a
particular generic social formation, such as feudal and semi
feudal tributary systems of land inequities or widespread settler
colonial land expropriation, is to miss the salience of growing
land concentration and inequality, and struggles to regain control over land(Moyo, 2004: 1).
If the key element of the land question in Africa is about
inequality and injustice in the way land is distributed, accessed,
owned and controlled, then the land question cannot be restricted
to the countryside only. For instance, in the City of Lusaka, available
evidence suggests that more than 70 percent of the city's urban
population reside on 10.5 percent of the land in unplanned/
informal settlement while the remaining 30 percent of the population in planned and conventional suburbs occupy 11.4 percent of
the land (LCC, 2000).1
3.1. The urban land question
Thus, if one takes unequal access to and control of land as the
core feature of the land question in Africa, then it becomes evident

that struggles over access to and use of land are not only a rural
phenomenon. There are many, often, inaudible and suppressed
struggles over land currently occurring in urban areas among poor
urban dwellers (Pithouse, 2014). But often, the urban land struggles
and conflicts are obscured by the dominance of the land question in

1
The land use figures are from the Lusaka Integrated Development Plan (LCC,
2000) while the population figures are from the World Bank Country Assessment
Report (2002).

rural areas, which frequently attract public attention and galvanise
wider political alliances (Obala & Mattingly, 2013). Consequently,
… when the land question is reduced to a question of the
countryside, or the agrarian questions, the urban land question
can also be occluded. And when the urban [land] question is
reduced to the housing question, which in turn is reduced to a
matter of the number of houses that have been built, without
regard for where they have been built, or what form they take,
the urban land question is also silenced (Pithouse, 2014).

Although the urban land question has been widely conceived in
terms of challenges of squatter settlements and therefore, largely a
housing problem; current pressure on urban land is exposing the
scandalously unequal distribution of and access to land, which
many poor urban dwellers are increasingly becoming aware of.
With this growing awareness of the inequality in access to land in
urban areas, many landless urban dwellers are inventing ways of
making their voices heard, oftentimes through unconventional
means such as invasion of either private or public unoccupied or
idle land. With little or no hope in the formal land delivery system,
the urban poor are more and more,
… bypassing these alien, outdated and inhibitive formal/official
urban planning standards and regulations, constantly improvising, creating and adopting their own parallel indigenous
structures, procedures and institutions in order to tackle their
existential problems, chief among which is the provision of
shelter/affordable housing (Fekade, 2000: 128).
One of the direct consequences of this scenario is an increase in
land conflicts. For instance, the Lusaka City Planning Authority “has
reported a rise in the number of complaints that are put before the
courts involving allocation and ownership” (SOE, 2007: 29). There

are several urban land conflict cases before the Lusaka High Court
resulting from illegal occupation of vacant land. One of the most
popular cases involves a group of people who invaded and occupied
the land near the Libala Water Works. The Lusaka City Council
threatened to evict the ‘squatters’ in 2012, but the group took the
matter to court challenging the eviction. There are other cases
involving the former Minister of Land who was allocating plots in
Lusaka illegally. The case that is similar to the Mtendere East situation is the Sakala vs Lutanga Mulaka cases, in which the applicant
has been living on land belonging to an absentee land lord since the
1970s. When the landlord recently re-surfaced threatening to evict
the current occupant, the latter decided to take the matter to court,
and the case is still before the Lusaka High Court. In addition to
cases before the Lusaka High Court, there are several urban land
cases before the Lands Tribunal, which is mandated by the 1995
Land Act to resolve land disputes.

3.2. Dimensions of the urban land question
One of the key dimensions of the urban land question is the
struggle to access land among the urban poor, which is often
compounded by an inefficient and inequitable land delivery system. Evidence from Kenya suggests that because of an inefficient

land delivery system, a small minority of the urban elite own the
larger proportion of urban land (Obala & Mattingly, 2013). Even in
cases where flexible land delivery systems such as “occupancy
licence” in Zambia, “residence licences” in Tanzania, and “starter
tittle and landholder title” in Namibia, exist, not many residents in
unplanned settlements have accessed land through these means
(Gastorn, 2013).

H. Chitonge, O. Mfune / Habitat International 48 (2015) 209e218

The other dimension of urban land question in the case of
Lusaka City is the unplanned settlements. Although most of the
unplanned settlements have been regularised (officially recognised
as legal settlements) and residents are allowed to obtain an occupancy licence which is renewable after 30 years, only 12% of the
residents have managed to obtain formal documents (LCC, 2000).2
One of the reasons cited for the low up-take of the occupancy
licence is that many plot owners in unplanned settlements are
scared that once the licence is issued, they will be required to pay
regular fees in the form of ground rent, which many cannot afford
(Gastorn, 2013). Thus, access to land for most people in unplanned

settlements has largely remained outside of the formal land market. For the City of Lusaka, it is estimated that more than 60% of
urban land for new developments is delivered informally due to
lack of capacity, inappropriate delivery framework, corruption and
backlogs (SOE, 2007). This was confirmed during interviews with
the Lusaka City council officials responsible for urban land planning
and administration, who acknowledge the lack of capacity and poor
land services delivery as enduring challenges.
Another common dimension of the urban land question is the
fact that urban land is a closely regulated space, though not always
well-planned. Urban land, when compared to rural land, is often
under close scrutiny, with several laws regulating the forms of land
use, the type of infrastructure, the process of land allocation, forms of
validating land ownership, provision of services, expansion etc.
Related to this is the fact that urban land is often inscribed and
bounded by other land use forms. For example the City of Lusaka in
Zambia is bounded by land under traditional authorities on the
eastern, south-eastern and northern sides of the city, and by private
small agriculture holdings to south. Although the city itself has been
expanding in all directions, and in the process transforming the
traditional land uses, the sombre reality is that the expansion of the
city is limited by the finite nature of available land on one hand, and
the capacity of the urban land planning authorities on the other. The
bounded and restricted nature of urban land presents a challenge in
terms of planning due to the fact that urban land becomes available
as the land use changes from one form to anotherda process which
is often difficult to control and predict especially in cases where the
planning authorities have limited capacity and resources.
The third dimension of the urban land question is the
compactness of the spaces. The densification of the urban land
spaces makes them attractive to many different actors including
young adults seeking employment, investors looking for skilled
labour, politicians seeking public office, rural dwellers looking for
modern amenities. The fourth common feature of the urban land
question in developing countries is the increasing pressure from
urbanisation (UN Habitat, 2013), especially for countries in Africa
which have experienced sustained economic growth for the past
decade and half now. This becomes more evident in the case of land
in the City of Lusaka.
4. Urban land in Lusaka: A 100-year overview
What is today Lusaka City, started as a railway siding in 1905,
meant to provide rest to the workers who were constructing the rail
way line from the South (South Africa and Zimbabwe) to the copper
mines in the north (present day Copperbelt) (Williams, 1986: 72).3

2
The more recent Lusaka City Council Report on the Status of Unplanned Settlements in Lusaka (LCC, 2006) does not provide the exact number of residents in
unplanned settlement who have obtained the occupancy license; it only states the
number is estimated to be less than 50 percent.
3
The railway line, which was constructed by John Cecil Rhodes' British South
African Company (BSAC) from Cape Town, reached Lusaka Village in 1905 and the
Copperbelt, on the border with Congo, in 1909.

211

Prior to the establishment of the railway siding, the area was
inhabited by the Soli people, under chief ‘Lusaaka’, who lived in
scattered villages around the area (Williams, 1986). Within a few
years, the railway siding, because of its centrality and geological
profile (huge underground water potential), attracted a number of
white settlers who in 1913 established the Lusaka Village Management Board (LVMB, Williams, 1986). While the colonial regime
imposed strict control on the residence of Africans in urban areas
(Collins, 1986), the independence era led to rapid urbanisation
mainly as a result of relaxing the urban residence rules, but also the
growing demand for labour for the booming copper industry.
Abolishment of pass laws and the bourgeoning urban centres
attracted many rural dwellers to urban centres to seek the “fruits of
independence in town” (Seymour, 1975: 72). However most of the
people coming from the rural areas could not find housing in
conventional residential areas; because the colonial policy regarded the African population in Lusaka as being temporary (Collins,
1986), and therefore did not envision the need for large scale
planned settlements for Africans.
Because the urban labour force was regarded as temporary, the
responsibility for providing housing (for rent) was considered to
rest with the employers. These included the colonial administration itself, employers who built one room, ‘native huts’
exempt from normal standards of building specified under the
public health regulation … (Rakodi, 1986: 199).
This idea that the “towns (and Crown or State Land farming
areas) were for Europeans and that the rural were for Africans”
(Collins, 1986: 106), and that urban residence for Africans should be
regulated and strictly tied to employment (common during colonial
rule in many countries in Southern Africa), influenced the model of
planning and development of urban areas including the development of Lusaka Town. In the case of Lusaka City, the initial 1930
plan by Professor S. D. Ashead (the President of Town Planning
Association in the UK), adopted the Garden City model, which was
in fashion in the UK, and planned a city for “8000 Europeans and
5000 Africans” (Rakodi, 1986: 199). Although the initial and subsequent plans have not been implemented in any meaningful way,
the evolution of Lusaka City is haunted by the ghost of the garden
city:
Modern Lusaka grapples with the challenges of density, housing,
transportation, and infrastructure (among other issues) inherited from the physical layout, segregation, and colonial enframing of original planned city. In this way, the shaping of today's
squatter settlements around Lusaka e and, indeed, the city's
entire physical form e can be traced back to the beginning of the
relatively young city's colonial history (Gantner, nd).
As noted earlier, the colonial influence on Lusaka's subsequent
development is not just in terms of physical planning, but more in
the enduring non-physical imprints of the misguided idea of a
garden city, and its accompanying planning models, legislation,
policy, institutions and administrative structures which have only
been partially decolonised.
In terms of land size, we see a city that has evolved from a 260ha settlement in 1905, to a current 36,000 Ha (see Fig. 1).4
Evidence of the evolutionary land map of the City of Lusaka is
the massive increase of its land size between 1961 and 1971,

4
The Comprehensive Urban Development Plan adopted in 2007 indicates that
the current size of Lusaka city is 42,337 ha and this is expected to increase by 100%
by 2030 to 86,015 ha (CUDP, 2007).

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H. Chitonge, O. Mfune / Habitat International 48 (2015) 209e218

Fig. 1. Evolution of Lusaka in Hectares 1905e2010.

Fig. 2. Population Growth in Lusaka 1964e2010.

increasing by almost 4 times. This increase can be attributed to
population growth due to relaxed residence rules after independence. For instance, it has been estimated that the total population
of Lusaka increased by 230% between 1963 and 1969 from 107,217
to 246,291 (see Collins, 1986: 127; See also Wood, Banda, &
Mundende, 1986: 165). This population pressure in subsequent
years has forced the city to expand further outwards as shown in
Fig. 2.
If we study Figs. 1 and 2 together, it is evident that the city's land
is increasingly under pressure from the growing population. The
sustained economic growth that Zambia has recorded since the
mid-1990 has also contributed to the pressure on the city's land,
and Lusaka as the capital city has had a significant share of this
growth in terms of commercial and industrial activities. This is
evident from the population density which has more than doubled
between 1990 and 2010 as Table 1 shows.
The population density for Lusaka in 2010 was reported to be
4853.2/km2, which is extremely high compared to other Zambian
cities such as Kitwe at 666. 1/km2; Ndola, 409.1/km2; Kabwe, 128.7/
km2 and Livingston, 200.7/km2. The increasing pressure on land in
Lusaka is partly due to the intra-urban migration which occurred
since the 1990s when the Copperbelt experienced low employment
due to the privatisation of the mining and related industries.
Pressure on the city's land resource is also evident from the number
of informal settlement which in 2000 were estimated to be
growing at the rate of 12% per year (World Bank, 2002).

As Table 2 shows, in 2010 there were about 37 informal settlements in the City of Lusaka, accounting for about 65% of the population, occupying just 10% of the city's land. Apart from the a few
of these settlements which started as sites and services5 settlements during the 1970s, 28 of these settlements started as a result
of people who could not find or afford formal housing (See Collins,
1986). Due to lack of affordable housing, most of the poor people
(mostly new immigrants) had no option but to squat on farm land,
rubbish damping areas, quarry land, and on vacant land.
The initial government attitude (immediately after independence) towards these squatter/unplanned settlements was not
different from the colonial approach, which saw these areas as
essentially breeding ground for criminals, illegal dealings, disorder,
and unemployed urban dwellers with nothing to contribute positively to the development of the city. Thus, the expectation after
independence was that these settlements would be eliminated as
the country developed (Seymour, 1975). But the failure to cope with
the increasing demand for housing in conventionally planned settlements made the government to realise that the unplanned settlements were there to stay. Upon realising this, the government
started to find ways of improving the conditions in the

5
Sites and services was a policy adopted during the 1970s to improve the living
conditions of people in the unplanned settlements after realizing that the settlement could not be eliminated as was initially thought (Seymour, 1975).

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H. Chitonge, O. Mfune / Habitat International 48 (2015) 209e218
Table 1
City of Lusaka population profile, 1963e2010.
Year

Population

1963
1969
1974
1980
1990
2000
2010
1963e2010 change (%)

195,000
354,000
421,000
535,830
761,064
1,084,703
1,747,152
795.9

Mean annual
growth (%)

Share in total national
population (%)

Share of total urban
population (%)

Number of
dwellings

13.6
3.8
4.5
4.2
3.6
4.9
5.8

3.5
6.5
9.0
9.4
10.4
11.0
13.3
281.3

17.2
22.0
25.3
21.9
26.5
31.7
33.8
96.3

27061.0
37675.0
79434.0
94005.3
198254.2
215316.0
358871.0

Dwelling
growth (%)

Dwelling growth
annual (%)

39.2
110.8
18.3
110.9
8.6
66.7
1226.2

6.5
22.2
3.1
11.0
0.8
6.7
8.4

Population
density/Km2
5416.7
2546.8
3028.8
1488.4
2114.1
3013.1
4853.2

Source: Author based on data from CSO (1969, 1980, 1990, 2000 & 2010).

Table 2
Unplanned settlement in Lusaka 2000e2010.

Bauleni
Chainda
Chaisa
Chawama
Chibolya
Chazanga
Chipata
Chipata Over Spill
Chipata Site & Services
Chunga
Freedom
Garden Chilulu
Garden Luangwa
Garden Mutonyo
Garden Site & Service
Gardern Site 4
George
George Soweto
Jack
John Horward
John Leing
Kabanana/Ngwerere
Kabanana Site & Service
Kalikiliki
Kalingalinga
Kamanga
Kuomboka
Linda
Mandevu
Marrapodi
Misisi/Kuku
Mtendere
New Ng'ombe
Ng'ombe
Old Garden
Old Kanyama
New Kanyama
Total

Population

Population

Households

2000

2006

2000

19,212
10,561
24,656
52,679
24,200
14,602
29,740
9837
7333
13,878
6411
7355
3241
4013
3618
4811
42,680
12,005
4861
22,574
38,959
7652
7333
11,830
28,686
7516
4401
8203
16,174
16,432
46,601
50,448
4143
23,850
20,348
62,933
22,089
695,865

12,841
29,980
69,405
25,000
17,755
57,039

66,496

27,448
47,371

14,384
34,880
9139
9974

56,663
61,341
34,038
42,506
103,381
719,641

4148
2484
5650
10 908
4500
2846
6364
1900
1344
2608
1406
1516
914
865
716
1130
9012
2477
941
4593
9249
1436
1344
2517
5864
1751
783
1843
3587
3433
10 832
10 155
927
5117
4434
14 812
5183
149 589

Size (Ha)

Legal status

Initial Land

66.72
99.81
115.99
47.32
52.62
243.08

Legal 1999
Legal 1979
Legal 1988
Legal 1999
Not Legal
Legal 1979

Farm land
Farm land
Workers Compound
Dumping site
Village land
Crop field

248.92

Legal 1976

Farm worker quarters

71.52
41.25

Legal 1977
Legal 2004

Quarry Worker quarters
Quarry land

46.03
68.24
52.62

Legal 1999
Legal 1986
Legal 1999

Workers' Compound
Farm land
Farm land

552.27
75.2
65.5
44.2
209.47

Legal 1999
Legal 1999
Legal 1999
Not Legal
Legal 1967

Farm land

Farm land
Reserved Land

93.32
387.45
36.67

Legal 1999
Legal 1999
Legal 1999

Cattle Ranch
Farm land
Farm land

Source: Author from various sources.

settlementsdhence the upgrading of informal settlements which
started in the 1970s. The programme of upgrading informal settlement in Zambia is reported to be one of the earliest and largest
upgrading programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank, 2002).
There are a number of reasons why the government changed its
approach to informal settlements. The most dominant one is the
fact that these settlements, because of the high concentration of
people, turned out to be the major source of the urban vote
(Seymour, 1975). However, there has been ambivalence when it
comes to the politics of unplanned settlements (Mulenga, 2003).
While successive governments constantly issue threats to demolish
any unplanned settlements, opposition politicians (mainly), often

campaign in these areas and promise the residents that their settlement would not be demolished once elected into power, and that
services such as water, roads, electricity, schools, clinics etc., would
be provided (Resnick, 2011).
While most of these settlements have been regularised and
gazetted as residential areas, there are still many people who find it
difficult to secure housing in Lusaka, and when these people get a
chance, they build shelters on vacant or idle land. In some cases
such land occupations are started and encouraged by the dominant
party cadres (fervent supporters loyal to a particular political
party), especially councillors who sometimes allocate land outside
of the city's planning and housing authorities (SOE, 2007). There

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Table 3
Examples of incidences of land conflicts reported in the media between 2013 and 2014.
Name of paper

Heading/Conflict issue

Date

Lusaka Times
Post Zambia

Invasion of private land e reports that 300 cadres were arrested over invasion of private land in Lusaka West
Illegal allocation of land e reports that 70% of land in Lusaka is in the hands of illegal owners e councillors and
mayors singled out as some of the actors involved in illegal land deals
Reports on land mal-administration in Lusaka and the shooting to death of Kapasa residents
Revisits the shooting to death of two Kampasa residents over illegal occupation of land in June, 2013
Reports the violent confrontation between police and over 80 youths over land invasions in Lusaka West.
The confrontations lead to the shooting to death of one youth.
Reports the breaking out of riots over the demolition of houses built on illegally acquired plots in Garden House area

26th September, 2013
1st October, 2013

Lusaka Times
Tumfweko
Zambian Watchdog
Lusaka Times

18th June, 2013
March, 2014
25th March, 2014
26th July, 2013.

Source: Author based on various sources.

are newspaper stories almost every week of councillors allocating
plots on land which is not designated for housing, especially during
election time (Lusaka Times, 2009). At the beginning of 2014, the
former PF General Secretary and Minister of Justice, Winter
Kabimba, complained during a media briefing about the increasing
lawlessness in the allocation of plots in urban areas, and instructed
police to deal with anyone, including Patriotic Front(PF) party
cadres, who were involved in illegal allocation of plots (Lusaka
Times, 2014).

settlement (Seymour, 1975). Protests over land also occur when a
community in an unplanned settlement is displaced by the city
authorities or private title holder to land. Examples of this include
the Kampasa case, Garden House, Twin Palm Road and Ibex Hill.
The way the conflict is resolved depends largely on the nature of
the community. Small and poor communities, often, do not have
the capacity to mobilise and sustain the protest to generate the
political muscle to ward off the evictions or demolitions (Jere,
2007).

5. Types of urban land conflicts in Lusaka

5.4. Boundary disputes

5.1. Overlapping claims

Though not very common in urban areas, disputes over
boundaries are becoming a common form of conflict even in urban
areas. This involves the contest between the state and other institutions or right holders over a piece of land. In the particular case
of Lusaka City, there have been claims of the city encroaching on the
land bordering the traditional authorities. While some officials
from the Lusaka City Councils as well as opposition parties interviewed argued that the land problem in Lusaka is partly because
the surrounding traditional leaders are refusing to release land for
urban development, there are some who argue that the main issue
is lack of the capacity to plan and implement the development and
management of land in Lusaka (Simatele & Simatele, 2009.

Urban land conflicts in Lusaka occur in various forms (see Table
3), though the most common form of land conflicts revolve around
the overlapping claims on a piece of land or plot. This often occurs
in cases where the land was acquired through an informal market,
with two or more people in possession of some document indicating that they ‘bought’ the property or plot. Recently, incidences
of concurrent claims are increasingly being reported even on land
bought through a formal land market (SOE, 2007). When such
conflicts occur, the matter is often reported to the police and the
Lusaka City Council Town Planning authorities. Within a 2 hour
period when we were conducting interviews in the office of one of
the city planning officials, we witnessed three cases of concurrent
claims reported by the residents from different parts of the city.
5.2. Land invasion
The other form of land conflict involves invasion of public or
private land. This often happens in cases where the land has been
idle or undeveloped for some time. In such cases one of the contending parties has formal documents as evidence of ownership of
the land. The case of Mtendere East, discussed in this paper is one
example of such conflicts. Often, conflicts over invaded land involve
violent confrontation as the authorities or the title holder seeks to
remove the ‘invaders’ from the land. In a number of cases, structures have been demolished by the police, especially if the invaded
land belongs to an influential person with political connections.
5.3. Community protest over land
The other form of urban land conflict that has become a popular
occurrence in Lusaka involves public protest of a particular community. In most cases protests arise when the state threatens to
demolish the structures which are classified as illegal settlements,
either on private or public land. This type of confrontation has been
an enduring part of the history of Lusaka from the colonial era, but
more pronounced in the post-colonial time when every government in power attempts to get rid of what it sees as unsightly

5.5. Inadequate shelter for the poor
The shortage of low-cost housing units for the poor is also
directly related to the urban land question in the City of Lusaka. The
problem of housing in Lusaka is one of the important elements of
the colonial urban planning legacies and a major source of urban
land conflicts. As mentioned above, the colonial planners were
highly limited in their perceptions of the housing needs for the
African populations (see Collins, 1986; Williams, 1986). According
to Collins (1986), a major defect of urban planning in the colonial
era was a failure to recognize the fact that the towns of Northern
Rhodesia would require an African population five times more than
the European population. Due to the shortage of formal housing
units after independence, employers began to establish private
compounds for their African employees, legally and illegally. These
initiatives have formed the nucleus of squatter settlements in
Lusaka. Currently, it is not just the unemployed poor that are now
facing accommodation challenges in the city, but also those in
formal employment, especially new employees who do not have
the opportunity to buy houses.
6. Mtendere East case study
Mtendere East community is located on the eastern side of
Lusaka City, bordering Mtendere Compound to the west, Ibex Hill to
the south, and the Natural Resource Development College (NRDC)

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215

Fig. 3. Location of Mtendere East settlement.

on the eastern side (see Fig. 3). According to one of the earliest
residents in the area, Mtendere East community started some time
back in 1991, when a few people invaded the then vacant land
belonging to a white absentee landlord who acquired the land
during colonial times.6 One informant who has been living in the
area for a long time now told us that when the invasions started,
the building of houses were done at night to avoid attracting
attention. As more and more people built houses, the invaders
mobilised and fought with police who attempted to demolish the
structures. Confrontation with police often resulted in violent encounters, and in one incident a police officer was killed (Metendere
East Interview, 2014). The Mtendere East case is now before the
Lusaka High Court, and has not yet been resolved.
While the fact that the case is still before the courts explains
why the police are no longer threatening to demolish the houses,
there are also reports that some of the police officers and city authorities have bought houses and plots in the areas and therefore
are not keen to pursue anything that can jeopardise their interests.
When we conducted interviews in the area, we noticed that

6
Mtendere East Residents observed that the initial owner of the land (which
used to be a farm) passed away long time ago, but left the land with his son who
migrated to Australia and has never been seen in the area. Residents also reported
that sometime back, the land owner sold part of the land to the former Archbishop
of Lusaka Emmanuel Milingo, who has a title over part of the land.

electricity supply lines have installed in the area, and some residents reported that electricity was provided to certain houses
before the matter went to court. When we asked about why the
electricity company (ZESCO) decided to provide electricity to a
settlement that was declared to be illegal, some respondents
mentioned that ZESCO did not care about whether the settlement
was legal or not; “all they wanted was money, so they connected
us” (Mtendere East Interviews, 2014).

6.1. Reasons for invading the land
During interviews, we could not establish the actual size of the
invaded land since no one has official documents, but from the size
of the settlement, the land is quite large and the settlement is still
growing. Although the initial invaders, mainly from Mtendere
Compound, started to build houses during the 1990s, it was only in
2006 when the size of the community grew.
One of our key informants reported that the land was invaded
because it was vacant and also because most of the initial invaders
were people who could not afford to buy land through the formal
land market. As one respondent put it, “I decided to invade land
because it is impossible to get land though the normal process
which require having sufficient funds in your bank account to
support the application for land” (Mtentere East Interviews, 2014).
During interviews we discovered that although the first group in

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the area was from the nearby Mtendere Compound (which also
started as an informal settlement), there are now people from
different parts of Lusaka who have built or ‘bought’ houses in the
area.
6.2. Status of the settlement
In terms of the law, these plots are still illegal because they are
situated on private land which is not gazetted as a residential area.
Technically the area is still private land categorised as a farming
area and the city authorities have not re-classified the area as residential. However, the fact that the land is still not legalised for
settlement has not stopped people from buying plots and finished
houses in the area. Most people we spoke to during interviews
were of the view that eventually the issues around the legality of
the settlement will be resolved and they will be able to get title
deeds. Many residents indicated that the two land owners have
now stopped pursuing the eviction route; instead they are asking
those who have built houses on these plots to pay K15,000 (US$
3000) for the land. It is not clear if any of the people who have built
houses or bought plots in the area have decided to pay the K15,000.
Some of the residents we interviewed told us that they are not
going to pay; “this land was vacant and idle when we started
building, so why should we pay?” (Mtendere East Interviews, 2014).
6.3. Who are the invaders?
From the structures of the houses that have been built in the
area, it was apparent that not all the people who invaded land in
this area are poor. As one respondent put it, “Not all invaders were
poor; some of the invaders include policemen, civil servants, politicians, business men, people working for embassies and many
people in formal employment” (Mtendere East Interviews,
February 2014). The quality of houses being constructed in this
area suggests that the people who are building these structures are
not the usual poor squatters who often invade land in order to build
shacks. The structures that we saw at the time we conducted interviews in the area where solid structures built from conventional
building materials from walls to roofs, and the plots are well orders
(unlike the case of most unplanned settlement in Lusaka where
plots are laid out haphazardly). Some of the houses are actually
huge with four bed rooms or more, surrounded by a high concrete
brick wall-fence. When we further investigated, it became clear
that most of the initial invaders were poor people who then sold
the plot to relatively well-off people, who are now building the
houses.
6.4. Mobilisation
We also asked the residents of this area if they are organised in
some form of a social movement or a lobby group to assert the
rights on the land they occupy. Most respondents reported that at
the beginning they operated as separate individuals without any
form of organisation. But later when many people moved into the
area, they established some form of structure and elected leaders,
who are responsible for mobilising the residents in times of need,
such as when the police move in the area threatening to demolish
houses. Unfortunately, we could not speak to any of these leaders
since most of them were reported to be staying in other suburbs;
they only come to the area to inspect their properties.
6.5. Informal urban land market
We also further explored how people sell plots when they do
not have titles. Most of the residents we spoke to indicated that

people buy the plots or houses hoping that later the court case will
be resolved and they will be able to get a title for their property.
While conducting interviews in the area, we were approached by
two different men who told us that they could organise a plot for us
if we were interested. When we asked them whether we would get
a tittle if we bought the plot, one of them said, “Do not worry about
the title; that will come later. The important thing is to make sure
that you involve neighbours when you are buying” (Mtendere East
Interviews, 2014).
Based on the information gathered during fieldwork, it is
apparent that a vibrant informal land and property market exists in
the area. When we asked residents who have ‘bought’ or ‘own’ plots
in this area why they paid for a plot without a title, they explained
that ordinarily, they would like to buy land on the formal market
where they are issued with a title deed, but buying land through
the formal process presents several hurdles including the exorbitant prices of land in Lusaka. Some indicated that they do not have
anything to offer as collateral to enable them access loans from the
banks. Some respondents argued that buying land through the
formal process involves a lot of corruption such that only connected
people manage to get land. While people are aware of the risks of
buying land through an informal market, they say that they have no
option since the formal land market only favours the wellconnected and wealthy people who can navigate the process
successfully.
The issues raised in this case touch on the key point raised in the
literature about the need to have a more flexible and responsive
urban land tenure system that carters for the different contexts and
needs (Payne, 2001; Fekade, 2000; Gastorn, 2013). Evidence from
this case study confirms the view that the larger portion of land in
Lusaka City (more than 60%) is delivered through the informal
markets (SOE, 2007). It is also apparent from this case study that
the people in the area have relied on what has been termed the
“numerical strength” to assert their security of tenure (See Payne,
2001). It is the presence of a large mass which gives them a sense
of security, and not a piece of paper (see Fekade, 2000).
6.6. The enduring challenge of the urban land question in Lusaka
If it is true that the invaders are not the poor who are struggling
to find adequate shelter, then the Mtendere East case does not
address the land question; the poor still remain without access to
land and affordable housing. This situation is expected to worsen if
the reports that most initial invaders (who were poor) are selling
the plots to well-off people from outside the community, are true.
What this suggests is that the poor people will continue to find
alternative shelter by invading idle and vacant land, thereby
perpetuating the urban land question and conflict. It is only
through an innovative and flexible urban land tenure policy and
delivery system that the urban land question can be addressed to
minimise land conflicts.
7. Causes of the urban land conflict in Lusaka
7.1. Shortage of land
As it may be apparent from the discussion above, there are
several causes of land conflict in Lusaka City. One of the most
obvious causes is the shortage of land due to the increasing population and the expanding local economy both of which require
additional land. In the case of Lusaka City, it has been observed that
the pressure from the growing population and economic activities
in the last ten years has led to an increase in the conversion of
formerly agricultural land into residential land (SOE, 2007). Interviews with the city planning officials also revealed that Lusaka

H. Chitonge, O. Mfune / Habitat International 48 (2015) 209e218

city has run out of land and is in need of more land to avert a land
crisis. Although the land use report suggests that there are large
tracts of unutilised land within the city's boundaries, what appears
as unutilised land has either been earmarked for development or is
already under a leasehold title (LCC, 2000). Thus, unless more land
is brought under the city's boundary, the land conflicts seen in the
past decade are most likely to intensify.
7.2. Vacant, undeveloped, idle land
Existence of vacant and idle land is also cited as one of the
factors responsible for the increasing conflicts over land in Lusaka.
The existence of land that is not utilised (even if it belongs to
someone) when many people are struggling to find land for shelter
encourages land invasions and the emergence of informal settlements which often lead to land conflicts. In the case of Mtendere
East, the invasions occurred because the land was not being used
for a long time and it appeared as though it was abandoned land.
The prevalence of idle pieces of land suggests that the city has not
been regularly auditing land within its boundaries.
7.3. Poor land delivery system
Conflicts over land in urban areas are also caused by the poor
land delivery system as noted above, where 60% of the land is
delivered through informal markets. Often the inefficient land delivery system which involves long waiting periods at every stage of
the process from surveying to the issuing of a title, forces people to
adopt other means of accessing land including invasions, informal
markets and corruption as highlighted in the Mtendere East case.
This results in conflicts as the rights in land may not be clearly
demarcated through these alternative means. In the context where
the value of land is appreciating rapidly due to the increasing demand for land (as is the case for Lusaka) an inefficient land delivery
system can lead to conflicts due to the failure to allocate and
administer land rights and interests properly.
7.4. Political interference of party cadres
One of the most frequently cited causes of urban land conflicts in
Lusaka is the issue of party carders and councillors allocating land.
All the politicians we interviewed cited what they referred to as
cadre-ism as one of the main sources of land conflicts, since the
party cadres allocate land outside of approved town planning land
use. Not only that, when one political party is voted out of power,
the new ruling party comes with its own cadres who begin to reallocate the plots and this often leads to conflicts. As many respondents noted, cadres often allocate land that is already allocated
to someone or reserved for a specific use under the city's development plans. Interviews with the Lusaka City town planning
official confirmed that party cadres are a major problem when it
comes to implementing the city's urban planning and development
policy (Lusaka City Council Interviews, 2014).
7.5. Lack of affordable housing
The shortage of affordable housing in Lusaka and other towns
was also frequently mentioned as one of the causes of urban land
conflicts since most of the poor who have no access to adequate
housing have no alternative but to settle wherever they can. Related
to this is the issue of poverty. Most of the poor in urban areas,
including Lusaka, cannot afford to build their own houses, and
because there are no affordable options for them, they tend to take
desperate measures to survive (Simposya, 2010). Almost all the respondents indicated that urban land conflicts arise due to the fact

217

that many poor people see the current urban land tenure as unjust,
favouring the rich. Nationally, the urban poor feel left out and the
only way for them is take any land that seems idle (Simposya, 2010).
8. Conclusions
It is apparent from the case study presented above that the urban land question has different dimensions. Although the urban
land question takes different forms in different contexts, the
common origin across cities is the inability of the city authorities to
meet the demand for land and housing in a fair and sustainable
manner. In the case of the City of Lusaka, the situation is compounded by the rapidly growing population and a steadily
expanding economy as evident from the population density which
doubled between 2000 and 2010 (see Table 1). Inefficient and
inadequate planning and development systems in the city make it
difficult to respond effectively to the challenges of the urban land
question in Lusaka and in other cities. This leads to the emergence
and growth of the informal land markets and the associated conflicts over land. The flourishing of the informal land markets in
Lusaka is evidence of the lack of capacity on the part of the city to
manage and administer land more effectively. This has resulted not
only in the emergence of unplanned settlements all over the city,
but also the conflicts over land. Going forward, pressure on land in
the City of Lusaka will increase and this will require more effective
and long-term planning, to address the looming urban land crisis.
This paper has also found that the reported invasion of vacant
and idle land in Lusaka is a more complex issue which involves not
only the desperate urban poor looking for land to squat on, but
involves other well-resourced groups, who sometimes hire invaders to invade the land on which they later develop residential
properties. However, the reported cases of the initial invaders of
land in Mtendere East selling land to well-resourced business
people is compounding the urban land question in Lusaka, raising
questions about the city's ability to serve the poor sections of the
urban society. To address these complex urban land issues, a more
flexible and respo