{"id":752,"date":"2021-01-19T17:48:05","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T17:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/?p=752"},"modified":"2021-01-19T16:23:22","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T16:23:22","slug":"rtmu-writes-president-chakwera-over-chikangawa-forest-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/rtmu-writes-president-chakwera-over-chikangawa-forest-dispute","title":{"rendered":"RTMU writes President Chakwera over Chikangawa forest dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Malawi<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Local sawmillers under Reformed Timber Millers Union (RTMU) have written President Lazarus Chakwera expressing discontent over the Department of Forestry\u2019s decision to sign a pact with a foreign investor whom the RTMU accuses of removing all local sawmillers from the plantation.<\/p>\n

During a media briefing held in Mzuzu, RTMU leaders Paul Nthambazale said they have written to president Chakwera to intervene before they conduct vigils at Chikangawa Plantation manager\u2019s offices starting from next week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have written the president (Lazarus Chakwera) to look into our grievances which have genuine reasons for every citizen to complain about, how can some few crooked individuals sell the whole forest to foreigners, hence rendering thousands of locals who were benefiting from the plantation jobless?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are completely frustrated with the conduct of the responsible minister (Nancy Tembo) who has been playing hide and seek on the matter, we have written the head of state now as our last resort before we engage on another gear, which are vigils at the plantation manager\u2019s offices,\u201d Nthambazale said.<\/p>\n

Nthambazale further complained that the leadership of Tonse Administration in the run-up to last year\u2019s presidential polls made a commitment to help out on the challenges affecting indigenous Malawians working in the plantation (Chikangawa Forest) but now it seems it was rhetoric.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth Chakwera, Chilima even the late Sidik Mia came here and gave us an assurance that once in power they will quickly revisit the concession agreement which is punitive to many Malawians whose grandfathers planted trees in this forest,\u201d another member chipped in.<\/p>\n

However, Raiply Limited\u2019s Public Relations Officer Dalitso Chimwala said the 60-year concession agreement was signed having reviewed how the company has performed in the last 20 years during which the company has been managing the forest.<\/p>\n

\u201cManagement of trees takes a long time hence signing this long term agreement, Raiply has performed extremely well going by the review which prompted authorities (government) to consider giving it another long term forest management concession,\u201d Chimwala said.<\/p>\n

However, Chimwala could not be drawn to give any clarification on the allegations that there were some fraudulent activities leading to the signing of the 60-year concession agreement going by an audio clip in which the then Forestry Director, Stella Gama was heard giving false information to the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on natural resources.<\/p>\n

Chikangawa Forest was established in 1960s by the former Malawi president Hastings Kamuzu Banda and has a total of 53 hectares of which Reformed Timber Millers Union were awarded a concession area of only 4 thousand hectares.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Malawi. Local sawmillers under Reformed Timber Millers Union (RTMU) have written President Lazarus Chakwera expressing discontent over the Department of Forestry\u2019s decision to sign a pact with a foreign investor whom the RTMU accuses of removing all local sawmillers from the plantation. During a media briefing held in Mzuzu, RTMU leaders Paul Nthambazale […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8],"tags":[233,371,409,306,234,407,408],"class_list":["post-752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-malawi","tag-chikangawa-forest","tag-lazarus-chakwera","tag-malawi","tag-ministry-of-natural-resources","tag-trees"],"yoast_head":"\nRTMU writes President Chakwera over Chikangawa forest dispute - Malawi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Local sawmillers under Reformed Timber Millers Union (RTMU) have written President Lazarus Chakwera expressing disconten ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/rtmu-writes-president-chakwera-over-chikangawa-forest-dispute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"RTMU writes President Chakwera over Chikangawa forest dispute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Local sawmillers under Reformed Timber Millers Union (RTMU) have written President Lazarus Chakwera expressing disconten ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/rtmu-writes-president-chakwera-over-chikangawa-forest-dispute\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Malawi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-01-19T17:48:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2021\/01\/img-600707585bf53.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"513\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/rtmu-writes-president-chakwera-over-chikangawa-forest-dispute#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/rtmu-writes-president-chakwera-over-chikangawa-forest-dispute\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"RTMU writes President Chakwera over Chikangawa forest dispute\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-01-19T17:48:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/rtmu-writes-president-chakwera-over-chikangawa-forest-dispute\"},\"wordCount\":434,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/rtmu-writes-president-chakwera-over-chikangawa-forest-dispute#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/malawi\/sites\/36\/2021\/01\/img-600707585bf53.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Malawi\",\"Chikangawa Forest\",\"Lazarus Chakwera\",\"Malawi\",\"ministry of natural resources\",\"Trees\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/rtmu-writes-president-chakwera-over-chikangawa-forest-dispute#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/rtmu-writes-president-chakwera-over-chikangawa-forest-dispute\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/malawi\/all-news\/rtmu-writes-president-chakwera-over-chikangawa-forest-dispute\",\"name\":\"RTMU writes President Chakwera over Chikangawa forest dispute - 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