Lusaka — LANDS minister Reverend Gladys Nyirongo shouldn't belittle me, former republican vice-president Enoch Kavindele has said.

Kavindele said Nyirongo's remarks following his decision to chase squatters from his Mukulumpe Farm on the Copperbelt were unfortunate and had injured him.

Kavindele was last week reported at Chambishi Police Station for allegedly beating up and shooting at squatters on his farm on Kitwe-Chingola road.

And Nyirongo wondered how a person like Kavindele, who was even aspiring for leadership, could resort to beating up squatters.

But Kavindele advised Nyirongo to desist from making spontaneous statements on issues of such nature before gathering the facts.

"I feel belittled and insulted by a political-starter," he said.

Kavindele said he was shocked that Nyirongo chose to visit the demolished shacks without a representative from Mukulumpe Farm even though he had assured the Commissioner of Lands that the farm manager would be awaiting the ministerial entourage.

Kavindele said Mukulumpe Farm was adjacent to BGRIMM Explosives Limited, the scene of a recent explosives disaster, and next to another explosives factory and the prohibited settlement near an explosive plant.

He said the statutory instrument of May 7, 1974 on Prohibition of Human Settlement in Proximity to Explosives Regulation ER 205 does not permit human settlement within 1,400 metres from an explosives factory.

"On the 5th October 2000, I wrote to the ZCCM authorities drawing their attention to the existence of this law and encouraging them to remove the squatters who had begun business of charcoal production next to an explosives factory. To my dismay, nothing was done and the migration of squatters onto this section of the farm has continued unabated," he said.

Kavindele said there was urgent need for the squatters to be relocated to the forestry land that government was de-gazetting on the Copperbelt.

He said in making the eviction announcements at the farm, his workers used a modern Sekaku Transistor Megaphone which has various facilities including a siren, alarm, whistle and other synthesised functions meant to imitate the sound of gunfire.