Maravi

Overhaul entire lands system

Overhaul entire lands system
By Ernest Mwape
Wednesday February 28, 2007 [09:13]

The recent revelations of corrupt practices by the Commissioner of Lands should not just end up with the investigation of one or two individuals at the ministry. Most of officers at the Ministry of Lands probably have dubious arrangements (third party real estate companies) through which they sell government land.

How else can one have four plots in one area? ACC should start with people who advertise and sell land to find out how they obtained several plots, when most of us don’t have anything despite repeated attempts to get some. I suspect that the recent revelations were made by officers who are not happy with efforts to reform the land allocation system (especially publishing of results of land allocation in daily papers). What is needed is to get back the land/properties from all those who will be found wanting, but give them the responsibility to implement reforms that would help improve land allocation because they know the loopholes and weaknesses in the current law.

Second, Cabinet should quickly pass a law forbidding sale of undeveloped land; and that any sale of such developed land should be made after ten years. That way all ministry officers who have been dubiously obtaining land and selling it at commercial rates will stop this corrupt behaviour. Equally important is the need for the government to come to terms with the fact that land is not free in Zambia. Even the traditional rulers are asking for a small token if you are coming from another part of the country to settle in their villages. Traditional rulers refuse to give land to local authorities because they know it is sold by the officers.

Why shouldn't the traditional rulers or the government get this money being made by officers dealing in land-related issues? I believe that traditional rulers would quickly offer their land for development purposes if the government offered to share with them any revenue generated from sale of such land (as is the case in the wildlife sector). As of now, traditional rulers are not willing to give land to Lusaka City Council for cemeteries beause LCC does not share the money realised from sale of graves with these traditional rulers.




http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=23242

Sichone shouldn’t trivialise land issue
By Frank Lungu
Wednesday February 28, 2007 [09:09]

The issue of “Lands commissioner's plots raise questions" as was the headline in The Post of 26 February, 2007 cannot just go without a comment. The issue of land is so important that I find it difficult to understand why the lands commisioner who is now acting as the permanent secretary in the ministry is trivialising it.

People have gone to war because of land, people have killed because of land, people have inflicted pain on one another because of land and therefore to read the contents of the interview with the Commisioner of Lands Frightone Sichone gives me worries and I am sure a lot more other Zambians are disappointed.

It should be clearly known that I should not know someone at the Ministry of lands for me to get a small piece of land but that if I follow the laid down procedure then I can acquire land. But going by the lands commisioner’s explanation, it is very difficult to acquire land in Zambia if you don't know anyone at the Ministry of Lands or if you are not a senior government official.

This is a dangerous situation that we creating for ourselves.
Let me also commend the Ministry of Lands employees who gathered courage and exposed this man and his clique.

I would like to urge the ACC to move in now and investigate the matter without undue delay. This issue is serious and should not be handled lightly so that sanity and dignity could be brought to the ministry.



http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=23239

We are not developing
By Concerned citizen
Wednesday February 28, 2007 [08:57]

I would like to comment on some of the issues that prick my heart every time I move around this country of ours. Just over the weekend I went to the Copperbelt. It was a sorry sight to say the least. It’s as though this country had suffered the ravages of war or a grave tsunami.

One wonders what is really happening in Zambia today. This government should save us the embarrassment by saying that this country is going in the right direction as far as development is concerned. From what I understand, national development in simple terms is an improvement in areas such as education, health, infrastructure, nutrition, housing and so on.
But what is obtaining on the ground in Zambia currently is astounding and perplexing to say the least.

After the presentation of 2007 budget by Hon Magande, I was left in a state of great despair and hopelessness. Our finance minister who is fond of the financial jargon like GDP, inflation rate, macro- and micro development and so on which many Zambians do not care to know did not articulate real issues which the ordinary Zambian would like to hear.

I want to know how much money I am going to pay for a bag of mealie- meal and if my children are going to get jobs after they leave school. Zambians are not going to eat single-digit inflation rate.
What development can the MMD government boast of? Can bringing in bogus investors who are given tax rebates for 5 years and thereafter leave our country and citizens in the cold be called development?

There is absolutely nothing to write home about in terms of what this country is manufacturing except that Zambia has become a dumping place of used cars, substandard goods etc. It’s a shame that we are even importing toothpicks. When is this country going to manufacture finished products from its God-given raw materials and stop selling what others have manufactured?

Labels: LAND, LETTERS

posted by MrK @ 4:19 PM