Opposition Members of Parliament Tuesday walked out of Parliament after government rejected a recommendation by parliamentary committees, assigned to scrutinise Land Bill, that land under freehold category should be under leasehold.
Leader of Opposition, Lazarus Chakwera, and People’s Party (PP) Acting President, Uladi Mussa, led the MPs out of the chamber in protest against government’s insistence that the new bill should not affect freehold land
The issue started when Minister of Lands, Atupele Muluzi, rejected the recommendation.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) MP, Victor White Mbewe, who was chairing the committee stage of the bill asked whether the amendments should be part of the bill or not.
The MPs initially accepted but, the government side requested that the question should be asked again. The MPs, mostly from the government said rejected the recommendation.
Opposition MPs asked for a roll-call vote but eventually decided to walk out of the chamber.
At an impromptu press conference in his office, Chakwera justified their decision.
“We walked out because there were several anomalies in the bill. It seemed government side already made a decision on the matter. The manner in which the committee stage was handled left a lot to be desired,” Chakwera said.
He added: “I think the gist of the matter is that we have to approach the whole issue of land acquisition and utilisation in a manner that serves Malawians well. The problem has been that some of or pieces of legislation have anomalies. We have freehold land, much of which was acquired before independence. Then we have the issue of customary land, which ordinary Malawians use. According to the Bill, customary land has to be registered. What we are looking for here is fairness.”
On his part, Mussa said it was surprising that the new law will be strict on customary land, while leaving out people who are currently using freehold land.
“There are so many restrictions on customary land. Our chiefs will no longer have control over land. Yet the bill is just leaving those people under freehold category,” Mussa said.
Parliamentary committees on Legal Affairs, Agriculture, Natural Resources and Women Caucus scrutinised the Bill.
Chairperson of Natural Resources Committee, Werani Chilenga, who spoke on behalf of all the committees, said he was withdrawing the report because Minister of Lands was playing double standards.
“Last night we had a meeting with the Minister at Capital Hotel. We agreed how we should proceed with business today. But we were shocked to see that he changed his stance,” Chilenga said.
Most of the land under the freehold category belongs to estates.
According to Muluzi although the land is not much, it contributes a lot to the country’s economy.
“The land in question is only three percent of the total land. We need to be extremely careful. If possible, we have to consider introducing land taxes for land under freehold system. This issue of free hold is a lesser evil. This is a constitutional matter, nothing personal. We can pass the bill and then revisit the issue of freehold category,” Muluzi said.
Leader of the House, George Chaponda, and Minister of Energy, Bright Msaka, said the law cannot be applied retrospectively.
As leaders of opposition MPs were addressing the media, about 70 MPs continued discussing the bill and eventually passed it.
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