Maravi

ZILMIS will revamp land administration - Kalaba
By Stuart Lisulo
Tue 01 Oct. 2013, 14:00 CAT

LANDS minister Harry Kalaba says the launch of the Zambia Integrated Land Management and Information System (ZILMIS) promises to revamp the land administration system in the country. Appearing on Muvi TV's Assignment programme on land administration on Sunday, Kalaba admitted that the current system had inertia and needed total revamping.

Land disputes and illegal land allocations continue to increase in frequency, with suspected cadres running the land distribution network and creating confusion and disorder.

"We want people to realise that shying away from us, by them taking the law into their own hands, is not helping this country. We want a system which will afford the very vulnerable, the very poor people to have a go at acquiring land. Even though the system has been working right, there have always been instances where people have tried to take advantage of the system, hence the introduction of this new system we want to bring,'' Kalaba said.

Kalaba said an Israeli company (Sivan Design D.S. Limited), which the government was consulting, would help deal with the land audit system.
"Once we have that system in place, it will obviously help us to keep stock of the land throughout the country without us having doubt whether we have left out some land somewhere; this will give us the confidence to say that this is what we have captured. Now, the current system is such that because it has been subject to manipulation we have got so many cases of people coming into our ministry with 'double offers' because people are going into the system. With the system which we are going to launch in January 2014, it will be watertight and it will allow the customer to be comfortable with the system. In fact, the aspect of desperation will run away,'' Kalaba said.

And Kalaba said people would now have a lot of confidence in the land management system as it would be decentralised, with the effect of corruption being curbed.

"People will be able to get titles from wherever they are all over the country instead of congregating here in Lusaka,'' Kalaba said.
Meanwhile, Kalaba revealed that the government was currently working on a draft policy to ensure a bill is drafted which would bring into effect the issue of customary land to also be on title.

"The security of tenure for people who are living in chiefdoms is very limited. Government is now working on a policy to draft a bill which we'll take to Parliament for ratification, to ensure that people in customary areas begin getting land record cards which they can use as collateral at a bank,'' said Kalaba.

The proportion of land in the country currently stands at 94 per cent customary, leaving six per cent belonging to the state.

Kalaba further said it was currently difficult to tell how much land was available in the country due to the current system, which was'defective' and was subject to manipulation, hence the introduction of the ZILMIS, scheduled to be introduced next year.

Labels: HARRY KALABA, ZILMIS

posted by MrK @ 1:57 PM