By Pemphero Malimba:
The Ministry of Lands has disclosed that it has embarked on devolving its functions from the central level to local councils in the country.
The ministry’s principal secretary Davie Chilonga said in a statement that the move is part of land reforms which the government is undertaking.
It follows the approval of the ministry’s devolution plan and function review by the Office of the President and Cabinet and the Department of Human Resource Management and Development in April 2023.
“Some of the key functions that are being devolved are local land use planning, land surveying, registration of land parcels, granting of leases and payment of ground rent,” Chilonga said.
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He added that the process will address challenges that people were facing when accessing various land administration services.
“The devolution of land administration means that clients will no longer travel long distances to regional offices and ministry headquarters to access land-related services, thereby reducing travelling costs incurred in the process,” Chilonga said.
He also disclosed that the Lands Ministry has already started deploying technical staff as one way of strengthening the capacity of the councils.
Further, the ministry has facilitated the recruitment of district land registrars to facilitate registration of land at the council level, the statement says.
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Responding to the development, women and youth land rights advocate Mphatso Jumbe called for more action to ensure effective implementation of the new measures.
Jumbe said that administration of land issues at local level has been affecting poor Malawians most of whom, she said, have been having their land grabbed by those in authority.
“We have had cases where chiefs sell off land belonging to their subjects; so there is a need to have mechanisms that should keep chiefs in check, because in whatever way people will be seeking services at council level, they will still have to go through their chiefs,” Jumbe said.
In 2016, Parliament passed several land-related laws, which were amended in 2022, to promote transparency and accountability in land administration across the country.
