Minister of Lands, Atupele Muluzi, has said it is the responsibility of the government to ensure fairness, transparency and accountability when it comes to land allocation by chiefs.
Muluzi said this on Tuesday during a breakfast sensitisation workshop on the controversial land related bills with editors and reporters from the electronic and print media in Blantyre.
On Monday, activist Billy Mayaya led a group of concerned Malawians on a peaceful march in Lilongwe to petition President Peter Mutharika not to assent to the Land Bill, Physical Planning Bill, Land Survey Bill and Customary Land Bill which have been passed by the recent sitting of Parliament.
“I want to leave you with quick points that are important to remember whenever tackling issues on the Land Bills. All land is managed by chiefs through delegated authority from minister responsible for land matters,” he said.
Muluzi also said under the new legislation, chiefs will manage it on trust with other members of the land committees to ensure fairness, transparency and accountability.
Opposition political parties have also expressed dismay with the contents of the four land-related bills.
Muluzi said the bone of contention was where the opposition wanted to insert a clause saying that the law should apply retrospectively and that the current holders of freehold land should lose their freehold title and it should automatically convert to leasehold title.
He explained that government had problems with this proposal because Section 209(1) of the Republic of Malawi Constitution provides for the continuation of rights of persons in property.
“Secondly, Section 5 of the Constitution provides for supremacy of the Constitution over any other law and invalidates any law, which is inconsistent with it. Government was insistent that we uphold the provisions of our Constitution,” he said.
Muluzi also noted that Section 44 (4) of the Constitution provides that there must be appropriate compensation paid out where there is expropriation.
He also noted that less than three percent of the land in the country is under freehold title and not that all of the freehold land is in the hands of foreign companies or organisations.
“Malawians too hold freehold land. Government position is that we should, as a country, no longer grant new freehold title. Existing freehold title should not be tampered with,” he said.
Chairperson of Malawi Editors Forum, Cliff Kawanga, commended the ministry for interacting with the editors at a time when people are eager to know what the land bills are all about.
“Land issues are very important since everyone is affected in one way or the other. The media should send the right information to the people,” he said.
Kawanga said as much as there is need to send the right information to the people, he encouraged the media to scrutinise the issues.
“Sending right information to the people does not mean writing positive stories only. The media should interpret the information to be understood by the majority; verifying such information with officials and experts is very important,” he said adding that an informed citizenry will make right decisions
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