Tag Archives: Housing and Urban Development

Development

Malawi: 3,000 land parcels set to be registered

Malawi News Agency (MANA)
Kuliyazi:
Kuliyazi:- 3,000 land parcels to be registered – Pic by Tione Andsen

Phalombe, August 22, 2019: Over 3,000 families are expected to be register land parcels through Land Governance project being implemented in three districts on pilot phase.

A consortium of Oxfam in Malawi and Centre for Environmental and Advocacy are implementing “Strengthening Land Governance Systems for Smallholder Farmers in Malawi” Project in collaboration with government through Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development.

Oxfam Livelihoods Resilient Manager, Steve Kuliyazi told Journalists on Wednesday at Maoni Village in the area of Senior Chief Nazombe that the project is expected to register 3,000 parcels of land in the three implementing districts of Phalombe, Kasungu and Rumphi.

He added that the project which in its third year has registered 900 parcels of land in Phalombe districts.

“The process is still on going and we are expected that by the end of the exercise 3,000 land parcels will be register and land owners will acquired valid documentation  of their ownership on those piece of land dully registered,” Kuliyazi pointed out.

He said the project has carried out field adjudication and demarcation of customary land in the area of Group Village Headman Maoni in Phalombe.

“The filed adjudication and demarcation was preceded by a training of recruited short term field technical staff and Customary and Committee (CLC) members on field work including parcels adjudication and demarcation and field attribute data collection and processing of the some towards titling and registration of customary estates,” the Manager explained.

Kuliyazi said the process would empower women to secure their livelihoods which could translate to eradicating their poverty in their households.

He said the implementing agencies are drawing lessons during the pilot phase and they would be able to rectify some of the challenges being encountered in the process.

Chairperson of Maoni CLC in Phalombe, Stena Moleni commended traditional leaders for being instrumental in the implementation of the process of registering land parcels in the area.

He said sensitization meeting which were carried out before the implementation of the project helped communities to have a better understanding of the land registration concept.

“We are happy that land ownership will be consolidated in our area where communities are being empowered to own their pieces of land legally,” Moleni added.

The four year project will end mid-2020 and is funded by European Union (EU).

Law and order

Why should we have this office in the first place?

Malawi News Agency (MANA)

The Office of the Ombudsman has expressed concern over high rate of non-compliance to its determinations by most ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), saying the situation is undermining the relevance of the office.

The Ombudsman Martha Chizuma Mwangonde made the remarks at parliament building in Lilongwe Tuesday.

“This office is really challenged with lots of non-compliance [to its determinations] from most MDAs in the country. This is infringing on the rights of many Malawians who rely on this office for assistance.
“If we don’t comply, why should we have this office in the first place?” queried Mwangonde.

According to the Ombudsman, ADMARC, Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA) and the Malawi Police Service (MPS) are among the few institutions which complied to determinations the office made to the institutions.

“The State House, Attorney General, Malawi Defense Force, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, Forestry Department, Ministry of Transport and Public Works, Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development were some of the MDAs with very high rate of non-compliance,” she said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the function, Ombudsman Public Relations Officer, Arthur Semba revealed that so far there are 306 cases to which different institutions have not complied.

“We had 13 determinations in 2016, 29 cases in 2017 issued under the current Ombudsman and 264 for the former Ombudsmen piling as non-complied determinations, which is a very big figure so far.

“That notwithstanding, the Ombudsman has also 112 cases under ordinary investigations but MDAs have been slow in remedying the various malaise occasioned,” Semba stated.

Lilongwe North East Member of Parliament who is also Chairperson for the Parliamentary Legal Committee, Maxon Thyolera, vowed to corner all organizations not complying.

“We will use the power vested in us to reverse the vice by taking them to task. People must be served with justice by honouring the determinations,” Thyolera said.

The office of the Ombudsman is legally mandated to inquire into any alleged instance or matter of abuse of any power or unfair treatment of any person by an official in the employment of any organ of government.

In addition, the office is mandated to manifest injustice or conduct by such official who would properly be regarded as oppressive or unfair in an open democratic society.