Remember Chunara?
Yes , Mahmed Shafee Ahmed Chunara, the businessman associated with the controversial “cement gate” saga involving the importation of 20,000 bags of cement from Zambia for President Arthur Peter Mutharika under duty-free arrangements.
Now, Chunara’s name is back at the centre of another growing controversy , this time over land in ADL/Lumbadzi, Salima and Now Magwero.
At Magwero in Lilongwe, chiefs and villagers are raising concerns that a massive perimeter wall has cut off long-used footpaths connecting communities to the M1 Road, disrupting access to trading centres, transport and essential services.
But behind the immediate community grievance lies a much bigger land story.
The development has brought into focus land claimed by Malawians whose interests reportedly date back to 2009 , claims that passed through the Ministry of Lands and eventually reached the High Court.
The landholders obtained a court judgment recognising their rights to occupy and possess the affected properties and restraining interference with those rights.
A subsequent court-backed arrangement provided for those willing to surrender their land to receive equivalent replacement land, with compensation where replacement land was not provided.
Yet today, parts of the land covered by those longstanding claims are physically enclosed within the development of Chunara since late 2025 and nobody seem to care .
Construction has continued. The wall has gone up. And land that was once the subject of court protection is now behind a massive perimeter fence.
How did land whose occupants had already gone to court and secured legal protection end up under the physical control of another commercial interest?
If those rights were lawfully extinguished, transferred or compensated, where is the clear legal trail?
And if they were not, how did development proceed over the disputed land?
The Magwero controversy is therefore bigger than a wall or a blocked footpath.
And this is not the first land controversy in which the Chunara family name has surfaced.
Similar concerns have been raised around valuable land in ADL/Lumbadzi and Salima, adding to questions about the scale and manner in which land has been accumulated around the Shafee-Ahmed Chunara business interests.
Information available to cables indicates that Chunara has been allocated over 50 prime plots at the prestigious ADL, a location which politicians and those connected to power have shared land for themselves at the expense of other deserving Malawians .
From “Cement Gate” to “Land Gate” in ADL/Lumbadzi, Salima and now Magwero.
Chunara is back in the spotlight, with questions of land, power and influence following closely behind.
How did the Chunara interests end up controlling Magwero land that the courts had previously recognised as belonging to others?
Chunara is on record challenging local people and authorities that nothing will happen to him and nothing will stop him as he is connected to the people of influence and power .
On the other hand, Malawians are struggling for the land that has been theirs for years but those responsible are no longer near protecting the poor Malawians .
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