The Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has called off its planned demonstrations on sale of Livimbo Community Day Secondary School.

HRDC has arrived at the decision after visiting the school where it has been discovered that the school land was not sold rather it was encroached by people surrounding the school.

Addressing a joint news conference at Capital Hill in Lilongwe, both HRDC and Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Vuwa Kaunda said they have agreed to conduct a thorough investigations on the matter.

“I am glad today that we have been vindicated, the school has not been sold, and we have presented every information to confirm that the school has not been sold, we have invited HRDC for dialogue and the matter had been resolved,” he said cheerfully.

On his part, HRDC chairperson Timothy Mtambo hinted on the need for government to up its efforts in documenting every public land to avoid repetition of what has happened at Livimbo.

“We believe in engagement, and we understand that encroachment happened, and it’s not only Livimbo, government needs to document public land across the country to avoid these re-occurrence,” said Mtambo.

He has also welcomed the move by government to institute dialogue whenever there are misunderstandings.

“The interface meeting that has happened, if we put everything aside, it’s something that has to be commended, government should not be afraid of its citizens,” said Mtambo.