Villagers protesting Madonna’s girls’ school in Malawi face arrest

Filed by Jessie K Powell on: November 6th, 2009 in News
Tags: Madonna
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Protesting villagers in Malawi are stalling construction on Madonna's girls' school in a bid for more rent from the megastar, according to a report.

Authorities in Malawi have now threatened to arrest some 140 villagers who are demanding more money for land the government has leased to the singer's charity Raising Malawi.

Madonna has adopted two children from the small Aids-stricken nation and has just returned from a visit with all four of her children to the village to break ground for the school.

Raising Malawi has leased the land for 99 years. It failed in a meeting this week to resolve the dispute with the district commissioner for Lilongwe, Charles Kalemba, and other senior government officials.

He told the village chief, Chinkhota: "If we cannot agree on this and if you cannot understand that this is government land, then I will have no choice but tell police to arrest you people for blocking development work on the site."

The Raising Malawi Academy for Girls has broken ground in Chinkhota village about 15 km (10 miles) outside the Malawian capital of Lilongwe. The school's construction has been earmarked at $15 million over two years.

Chinkhota said after the meeting: "The construction of this school will be affected if these problems are not resolved. My people are not given enough money for them to buy farm land somewhere else and continue their lives."

source: Splash News

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