By NORMA SIAME –
LAND surrounding one of Zambia’s prime heritage sites in Northern Province has been encroached by members of the public that have put up structures in the restricted area.
The National Heritage and Conservation Commission (NHCC) has since asked people putting up structures in the Mwela Rock paintings site in Kasama to stop or risk having their structures demolished.
It was however not clear who gave the encroachers permission to build at the site.
NHCC regional director for Northern, Muchinga and Luapula provinces, Bilead Lishiku revealed this in Kasama yesterday.
Mr Lishiku warned that those who will not heed the call to halt construction works may have their structures demolished as the commission is backed by the law.
He stated that it was unfortunate that people had encroached on the commission’s land and were now claiming to own it.
The Mwela Rock paintings are located about five Kilometres from Kasama town and are associated with the Late Stone Age.
More than 1000 paintings have been recorded in the rock outcrops, making Mwela Rock Paintings National Monument as one of the densest concentrations of rock art sites anywhere in Africa.
The site is protected under the National Heritage Conservation Commission (NHCC) Act, Cap 173 of the laws of Zambia and was declared collectively as a National Monument under Government notice No. 255 of 1964 bearing the name of Mwela.
Part of the area is further protected under the Forestry Act as it falls within the Kasama Forestry Reserve area under the traditional leadership of Senior Chief Mwamba of the Bemba people of northern Zambia.