Liness Mwandira, 44, has lived in Ndirande for more than 20 years—long enough for the place to become more than just a piece of land.
She bought her 3-by-5 plot from her traditional leader and, over the years, built a comfortable life on it.
A few minutes away, her neighbour’s journey to the main road cuts through a dried-up maize field. Beyond the field, however, stands a different picture of Ndirande-rows of substantial houses, some built more than a decade ago, with electricity supplied by the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) and water connected by Blantyre Water Board.
For the residents, this is the only place they have called home.
But despite the comfort they have built, there is an elephant in the room—the eviction order.
Some residents are unaware that an eviction order exists.
Alice, for instance, only learnt about it when it was brought to her attention.
“So where are they going to place us? Will they compensate us for demolishing our houses?” she asks.
The order itself does not identify individual residents by name. It is addressed to “persons unknown”.
When the wording is read to her, Alice is puzzled.
“What does ‘persons unknown’ mean? Who are they talking to? Where were they all this time?” she asks.
Alice is among thousands of people who have established themselves in areas where the city council says they are illegally occupying public land.
For many, however, the dispute is no longer simply about ownership.
It is about homes built over years, families raised there and lives anchored around houses connected to electricity and water.
Group Village Headman Somanje-Makata says he will not allow his people to be evicted.
He bases his position on Section 6 of the Limitation Act and disputes the city’s claim to the land, arguing that it belonged to their ancestors before the community occupied it.
“Actually, the land they claim to own was given to us by our ancestors. We have chosen to get back the land and distribute it to people who have nowhere to live. So we will not allow this nonsense called an eviction order,” he says.
His position puts the traditional authority on a collision course with city authorities, who have threatened action over the occupation.
Property development and management expert Geoff Wawanya says part of the problem is that the Ministry of Lands has not sufficiently sensitised people about land laws.
“As a result,many people do not understand where they can legally settle and where they cannot,” he says.
Wawanya also sympathises with residents who face eviction after establishing themselves in an area for years.
Population pressure
Malawi Local Government Association executive director Hadrod Mkandawire attributes the growing problem to rapid population growth and rural-urban migration.
He says weak enforcement mechanisms and political interference have also allowed encroachment to spread.
“The rapid population growth and high rural-urban migration has significantly increased demand for land for residential and commercial development against very limited land available for allocation,” he says.
According to Mkandawire, this is pushing desperate urban residents onto public land, including protected areas such as river buffers and wetlands.
“When these people encroach into these public lands, the weak enforcement mechanisms of the law to evict them motivates others to do the same,” he says.
A collision waiting to happen
The dispute in Ndirande exposes the difficult balance between protecting public land and dealing with communities that have already taken root on it.
The city authorities have a responsibility to protect land reserved for public purposes.
But residents also want to know what becomes of the investments they have made in homes they believed were theirs.
According to Blantyre City Council Director of Legal Services Mphatso Matandika after Ndirande, they will go to Bangwe, Soche where people have built homes on city land.
In an interview, he said the council has been undermined by corruption and indiscriminate court injunctions, which have weakened enforcement efforts.
