Maravi

Land reform is an urgent necessity

Land reform is an urgent necessity
By Editor
Friday March 02, 2007 [02:00]

THE news coming out of our Ministry of Lands is not pleasant at all. It is very disturbing. While we welcome the measures that President Levy Mwanawasa has taken following our exposure of malpractices at the Ministry of Lands, we feel much more needs to be done and the dropping of one minister, suspension of the Commissioner of Lands and the possible arrest of some civil servants will not do much.

The importance of the land tenure system and the process of land alienation to Zambia’s development and our people’s wellbeing is cardinal to our nation’s progress and prosperity. Land is essential to human society and therefore, the manner in which it is acquired, used and managed is very important. The low rate of economic growth and the high poverty levels can partly be attributed to our failure as a nation to address the inadequacies and deficiencies in our country’s land tenure system and the process of land alienation.

Zambia still faces significant challenges with respect to democratising its land tenure and administration. At the same time, the country is experiencing growing cases of tenure insecurity, especially in the squatter compounds.

The system of rules and practices under which persons exercise and enjoy rights in land or the general conditions upon which land is held should not be static; they should respond to changes taking place in our country. We note with great disappointment that the current legal and institutional framework is not totally in tune or in line with what is on the ground, that is the demands and needs of the people.

The land issue should be perceived as one of human rights and constitutional concerns. And when one critically examines our land tenure system and the process of land alienation, the picture emerges that we have not really sat down to draw our own land laws. We are applying land laws hastily assembled or picked up from other jurisdictions without any relevance to the situation here.

Our institutional framework for land delivery and management is very weak.

It is dangerous that the Commissioner of Lands has exclusive discretion to approve or reject an application for land. The Commissioner of Lands can parcel out land single-handedly to anyone he desires. This may not be desirable, but this is the law. Clearly, the law makes the Commissioner of Lands vulnerable to abuse; it is too weak and has no controls. However, no one has seen the need to change the law and make the commissioner’s use of powers more democratic and transparent.

Furthermore, some chiefs have joined the bandwagon of land thieves and are making a killing on selling land. Corruption, undemocratic tendencies in the administration of land and other factors have in fact combined to make it very difficult for the great majority of our people, especially the poor, to acquire or secure land.

In order to improve the system of land tenure and the process of land alienation, some of the statutes related to land management require amendments. There is need for a major land policy overhaul so that all the various needs of our people are captured. And the new land policy must be quite different from previous ones. It must be based on the widest possible opinion; government must promote the widest possible consultation before penning down the policy. There is urgent need to revisit the 1995 land Act to redress its harmful effects, especially those that marginalise the already disempowered, the poor and the peasant farmers.

The right to access land is not guaranteed in our Bill of Rights. In order to ensure effective rights, this must be there. Since land is missing in the Constitution, it is not easy to protect it from abuse. For example, it was possible to introduce the 1995 land Act without public involvement because it was not a constitutional matter.

Land is the basis of all human activity from which we derive all the basic necessities of life. Therefore, effective institutional framework for land delivery, administration and management should stress the need for an integrated approach that includes a wide range of stakeholders.

And from the events of this week it is very clear that there is need to change the law and make the Commissioner of Lands’ use of power more democratic and transparent.

What has been exposed this week is something that has been going on for a very long time. People entrusted with managing our country’s land on behalf of our people have been enriching themselves by exploiting the weaknesses in the system. They have parcelled to themselves land, sold it at very high profits and through that they have created a serious demand for land. This is because they have turned land into a speculative commodity. Those whose job is to administer our land system have the power to compromise many people who are looking for land.

Zambia has abundant land resources but millions of our people have no access to land. Access to land is still one of Zambia’s major nightmares. However, unlike other countries, this is not due to the shortage of land. There is plenty of land in Zambia to satisfy the needs of everyone. The shortage is due to the inefficient methods of land ownership, its management and utilisation. Consequently, there are hundreds of thousands of our people with no access to land.

There is urgent need for us as a nation to begin addressing the problems associated with the land delivery system in our country in order to ensure equitable access to land and in this way promote national development. Land law reform in Zambia is an urgent necessity. We can no longer continue with the current system that is reeking of corruption in every pore.

However, we are pleased with the practical response Levy has given to the corruption that has been exposed in the Ministry of Lands. This is how things should be.

This is what zero tolerance of corruption should mean. But we urge Levy to go beyond the sackings, suspensions and arrests of those who perpetrated or were suspected to have corrupt dealings in land to reforming the whole system. This is the only way we can ensure that things like these are not easy to practise. If not, the replacements of these characters will soon fall to the same practices.

Labels: CORRUPTION, EDITORIAL, GOVERNANCE, LAND

posted by MrK @ 3:43 AM