A Manse on the Investor’s Plot? A Zambian Church and a Developer Clash Over a Kitwe Residential Stand

• St Andrews Presbyterian Church in Kitwe is in a dispute with Marblearch Investment Limited over a plot in Parklands
• The company says the church built its minister’s house on land it owns
• The investor says it has put US$1.2 million into blocks of flats on the land
• The town clerk acknowledged encroachment and offered to mediate

A land dispute in Kitwe, Zambia, pitted St Andrews Presbyterian Church against a property company over a residential plot in the Parklands area, Zambia’s Daily Nation newspaper reported on July 6, 2020.

Noah Chitumbo, property manager for Marblearch Investment Limited, said the church had “illegally constructed the house of the Reverend on a piece of land” that belonged to Highland Investments before it was sold to his company. Rev Lazarus Chirwa of the church had earlier said Marblearch threatened to demolish his residence.

Chitumbo denied there was any wrangle, saying “that land belonged to Marblearch Investment Limited, which has put an investment of blocks of flats worth US$1.2million.” He said Highland Investments had tried to resolve the matter before selling the property, but the church had delayed responding.

Kitwe town clerk Mbulo Seke acknowledged the encroachment and offered to mediate between the parties to “maintain peace and harmony”.

The case turns on a question that surveyors in Jamaica deal with every week: where exactly the boundary lies. A church that builds a manse, hall or extension without a current survey risks putting part of it on a neighbour’s land, and the neighbour may later be a developer with far deeper pockets. Before any building work, Jamaican congregations should have their boundaries surveyed and marked by a commissioned land surveyor and check that the plan matches the title.