By: Lloyd M’bwana
The country’s Landnet Malawi has expressed optimism on the enactment of the much awaited land bill in the current seating of Parliament saying the law will address land grabbing that has perpetuated poverty among the rural people.
Landnet was reacting to the Parliament order paper which shows that Land bill was among the bills expected to be tabled in the just opened seating of the national assembly which runs from November 6 to December 4, 2015.
In an exclusive interview with the Maravi Post on Saturday, November 7, Emmanuel Mlaka, Landnet National Coordinator emphasized the need for the country to have land laws in place in a bid addressing land grabs which is currently rampant perpetuating poverty among rural people particularly widows and orphans.
Mlaka said all technical challenges on the bill including the role of chiefs, land committees and clerks and gender disparities have been sorted out with the expectation that legislators will have thorough debate when the bill is table in Parliament with other related land
bills such as customary, registered land and physical planning bills.
“Our legal team have been in touch with the Ministry of Justice and Constitution Affairs, chiefs and women groups on how best the law will address all challenges which prevented enactment of the bill for over 13 years.
“Technical hitches including the role of chiefs, land committee and gender imbalances which delayed the passing of the land bill have been sorted out with decisive clarifications such that when tabled this time around, legislators will have good debate and pass it into law.
“Once land law is in place, cases of land grabbing, foreigners owning land in willy-nilly will be a thing of the past. The absent of this law has made widows, orphans loosing land to misguided individuals through fraudulent act which perpetuated poverty as most families rely on land for food production and commercial purposes”, pointed out Mlaka.
He therefore applead to all stakeholders working on land issues in joining the network in lobbying Members of Parliament (MPs) to pass the bill into the law once its tabled in the current seating.
“Comprehensive training for Parliamentarians has been arranged prior to the tabling of the land bill that they understand technical issues which will help them to have a health debate when the bill is presented in the August house. Thus, with this arrangement, the public
must be assured of the passing of the bill into law with the continual lobby from other stakeholders”, assures Mlaka.
After the Land bill was successfully passed into the law by Malawi Parliament in 2013, the former President Joyce Banda failed to assent it into law due to protests from chiefs, women activists describing it as the way of dealing with chiefs in administering land as the case in Tanzania while on women sides, the bill was discriminatory towards women and children in accessing land resources which needed further consultations before it was passed into the law.
