Mozambique: Land invasion in Greater Maputo ends in chaos

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Mozambique: Land invasion in Greater Maputo ends in chaos

12:03 CAT | 18 Mar 2025

File photo: Noticias

Residents from several neighbourhoods in the Greater Maputo metropolitan area invaded land in the Matutuíne district, forcing agents from the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR) to intervene to stop the usurpation of the area.

The incident sparked outrage among the population, who gathered yesterday in the Malanga neighbourhood to protest and demand access to the lands that they have been demarcating and self-assigning, allegedly because they were given to them by a native.

As a form of protest, they set up barricades at one of the access points to the Maputo/KeTembe bridge, with the aim of forcing the authorities to allow the occupation of “other people’s land”.

Constância Chambisso, 58, paid 300 meticais to clear the forest on land granted to her in November last year by an elderly woman from the KaTembe N´Sime administrative post in Matutuíne.

“The lands were not invaded, but rather ceded. Why, after we cleared the plots, are they preventing us from entering? This is unfair. I live in Magoanine and my house is submerged – I need a place to rebuild my life,” she said.

Mário Dimande, the group’s spokesperson, said that the residents will not give up and will build houses in areas they believe have no owner.

“We are more than a thousand people. We came together to clear the forests of Matutuíne, but now the situation is like this because they did not stop us before we started clearing the areas. These are our lands by right,” he explained.

Land grabbing in Maputo province has been one of the main concerns of local authorities, who are working to find peaceful solutions.

In this context, Secretary of State in Maputo Henriques Bongece met community leaders from KaTembe N’Sime to discourage the population and call for the vacating of illegally occupied lands. “We cannot allow people to invade the properties of people who even have land use and benefit rights. The invaders do not build homes to live in, but rather build precarious houses to later sell the land. The population must refrain from such practices,” he said.

Source: Noticias