Machina urges govt to review land Act

Machina urges govt to review land Act
Written by Margaret Mtonga
Tuesday, March 24, 2009 4:44:19 PM

ZAMBIA Land Alliance (ZLA) executive director Herny Machina has urged government to review the land Act of 1995 to enhance transparency in land acquisition.

In an interview yesterday, Machina accused the current act of promoting corruption in land administration.

“We want the Land Commission to be established so that wide consultation is done in land allocation,” Machina said. “Currently, it is very difficult and expensive for one to acquire land because the system is so centralised in the sense that if one wants to acquire land, they have to come to Lusaka because that’s the headquarters where one can deal with issues of land acquisition,”

He said there was a lot of bureaucracy in land administration in the country and called on the government to revise the land Act of 1995 to reduce chances of corruption.

“There is a lot of corruption in the acquisition of land because of the bureaucracy that is existing at the moment,” Machina said.

He alleged that the government had weak monitoring capacity of land development in the country because most people were acquiring land illegally.

“The government has weak monitoring mechanisms that are supposed to be changed so that they can be able to know that one in a certain area has acquired land unlawfully,” Machina said.

He further advised the government to orient councillors in the country on land administration to reduce incidences of corruption in the processes.

“The government should simplify and give information to councillors on the procedure of how land is acquired,” said Machina.

“I also would like to appeal to the government to harmonise the various institutions that are involved in land acquisition because they end up confusing people at the end of the day as they do not know where to go. There is need for the government to address these challenges as they will enhance transparency and fight the vice of corruption.”