Mbeya RC intervenes in villagers, church land dispute

MBEYA Regional Commissioner (RC) Amos Makala has ordered Rungwe District authority to assess Ilolo villagers’ land needs to facilitate fair allocation.
 
Mr Makala has tasked Rungwe District Commissioner (DC) Julius Chaliah and his team, including the District Land officer, to immediately visit Ilolo, talk to villagers and mark the boundaries to ensure that the 3,200 acres are allocated for the development of Ilolo people.

“Quickly work on these land issues in your district and let me get your recommendations that shall help me to rightly decide and eventually end this problem that has persisted for a long period,” said Mr Makala.

The RC’s move follows the government’s revocation of all property rights over farms in Ilolo village, formally under the Moravian Church in partnership with some foreign investors.

At last week’s meeting, Rungwe District Executive Director (DED) Loema Peter said the land crisis that had lasted 27 years should now come to an end to enable Ilolo villagers repossess the land they inherited from their forefathers.

“After analysing many documents that show that everyone has a right in the area, the government has decided to erase all the property rights on the Moravian Tanzania owned farms,” she said, adding that all villagers had the right to own land and the government was looking for the modality to ensure that each Ilolo villager had a piece of land to rely on.

She advised Ilolo leaders to list all villagers to enable the government embark on the land allocation process to benefit everyone.

One of the villagers, Emilisa Sakavege insisted that the conflict was between the church and the village, recommending that the farms be given back to the village without necessarily listing their names. “Why should we register our names for the land which is basically ours?

The 100 year tenure which the Moravian church was given has already elapsed and now the land belongs to us. We need it for our current generation and our children in future,” she insisted.

Ms Sakavege said Ilolo villagers have been fighting for repossession of the farms for 27 years now, urging the national leaders, including President John Magufuli, to intervene in case, which regional leaders have allegedly failed to solve.

The Moravian Church, Rungwe Mission, has for long time been embroiled in the land grabbing scandal, which involves over 1,799 Ilolo villagers. The conflict raged on despite the directive that Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa gave during his tour of the village last year, ordering the regional authorities to resolve the land quarrel.

Mr Majaliwa had last year ordered RC Makala to act on the Ilolo land grabbing as per the country’s rules and regulations and notify him on the actions taken.

Reached for comment, the villagers said that if the conflict persists, they will seek audience with President Magufuli to help them repossess the 1,700 hectares that the church had grabbed from them. Furious Ilolo villagers maintain that their ancestors had been growing crops on the plantations and wondered why missionaries grabbed their worshipers’ land and passed it over to investors, instead of concentrating on evangelism.