AG fighting K110bn claim
Attorney General (AG) Thabo Chakaka-Nyirenda is challenging a K110 billion compensation a Blantyre family is claiming for land which it alleges government acquired from its ancestors in 1981.
Two businesspersons, Rajesh and Deepak Hathiramani, who are brothers are claiming K87 billion for loss of use of the land and lost opportunity as well as K23 billion in interests.
The 14.6 hectares under claim is where Chirimba Industrial Site sits and the two brothers’ father bought it in 1955 at 500 British pound sterling before government acquired it under the Land Acquisition Act.
According to court records Weekend Nation has seen, former president Hastings Kamuzu Banda, acting as Minister of Lands in 1981, directed that government acquires the land to turn it into an industrial area.
At that time government offered the family K2 550 as compensation, but it rejected it on account that it was too little.
Thereafter, there were a series of correspondences between the family and government, with no agreement reached.
The family further took the matter to the National Compensation Tribunal but upon the body’s winding up in 2010, the Hathiramanis engaged lawyers to commence proceedings in the High Court, to claim compensation from government.
According to Ministry of Justice’s official Facebook page, as of 2019, the Hathiramanis claimed K837 million, but that figure has since jumped to K110 billion.
According to information on the ministry’s Facebook page, the amount’s sharp rise follows an expert witness, a valuer, who has pegged the claim at K87 billion for loss of use of the land and lost opportunity, and K23 billion as interest.
But due to government’s failure to defend the matter, the defence was struck out years back and the High Court entered default judgement in favour of the Hathiramanis. This was before Nyirenda was appointed AG.
On Wednesday, the matter came before the assistant registrar of the High Court of Malawi and the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal Ibrahim Hussein for assessment, where a witness testified before the court adjourned the matter to a later date for another witness to testify.
According to the claimants’ skeleton arguments, despite several efforts by their predecessors, government neglected to compensate them until they decided to take the matter to court.
“Therefore, the claimants are claiming payment of fair compensation and general damages for deprivation of property without compensation,” read arguments filed by the claimants’ lawyer Samuel Tembenu.
Tembenu declined to comment after the Wednesday court appearance, while Attorney General, in an interview, said he felt the 1981 valuation of K2 550 was a fair compensation, which government was ready to pay equivalent to today’s exchange rate.
He said: “So, what we are saying is that the compensation that was offered in 1981 was fair and reasonable.”
The AG dismissed claims by the complainants that they did not pursue the matter in court then because they feared the one-party Malawi Congress Party (MCP) dictatorial regime.
Chakaka-Nyirenda quashed the claims, arguing that records show that there was an exchange of letters for several years between the same dictatorial regime and the family regarding the land issue.
He said: “They were able to contest in 1981. They should have actually gone to court then and not wait for 42 years to come to court to claim the compensation. Their argument has been that they were failing to go to court because they were afraid of the one-party system of government.
“But, though that is the case, they were able to contest the claims as far back as 1981 and there are letters up to 1996 so the argument that they took long to come to court to challenge the compensation on an account of the dictatorial system of government is a frivolous argument.”
Before the land was turned into Chirimba Industrial Site the Hathiramani family was using it as an agricultural and residential land.
