Zambia: Government clamps down on 'illegal' housing

Since the Patriotic Front government of President Michael Sata took power in 2011, several operations have destroyed dwellings deemed illegal. The previous government, helmed by President Rupiah Banda, was perceived as soft on corruption; its party supporters accused of displacing legal land owners to sell their land. In September 2012 about 100 middle-class houses were pulled down in Lusaka. Over 50 houses were demolished in the Zamtan shanty area of Kitwe, Copperbelt Province, and in Eastern Province, about 100 houses in a forest reserve of the provincial capital, Chipata, have been identified for destruction.