Chief Chisunka of the Ushi people in Mansa district has appealed to government to devise certificates for local people who are given customary land.
The chief suggested that the certificates should be issued by traditional leaders to people who obtain pieces of customary land.
He told ZANIS in Mansa that it was difficult and expensive for an ordinary citizen to acquire title deeds for a piece of land hence the local people were disadvantaged.
Chief Chisunka explained that local people in villages can acquire land from chiefs but they cannot afford to pay for title deeds.
He said coming up with a certificate for customary land will allow local people to own land that they can use to develop themselves.
The traditional leader said such a certificate will be important as it will help people use it to develop themselves and get the title deed once they have developed themselves to manage to pay the costs for the title deeds.
He observed that currently, the only people who are having land are those Zambians that have money and some foreign investors who have no problems with paying for the costs of land title.
Chief Chisunka further said if government allows chiefs to issues land certificates, poverty levels among the local people will reduce because many will have land and be able to use it productively.
Meanwhile, a lands officer at the Ministry of Lands in Mansa, Sera Nalavwe, has advised the local people to consider seeking advice from her office and the council before they buy land from any person.
Ms. Nalavwe said many people who buy land from individuals are cheated and in turn put the blame on government.
She said this can be avoided if people were to consult before buying land.
Luapula has intelligent chiefs, you can ask Davies Mwila.
Iwe Nostradamus
How do we ask proconsul surely,lol he will end up chasing us for asking ….”ulefwaya alande muchibemba?”
One of the smartest chiefs among the smart people of the Zambian Enterprise
That power will just be abused
Good thinking chief chisunka, spread that thought to chiefs in other areas and come up with a refined formula. Thats also a way you can come up with a local tax for people that lease traditional land but let it sit idle at the expense of the local people.
Good suggestion.
VERY GOOD SUGGESTION TO HELP US ZAMBIANS, sometimes you may even have money to invest in area and the chief is willing to give some land but because TITLE DEEDS TAKE LONG AND YOU CANNOT AVOID TO INVEST SUMS OF MONEY WITH OUT ANY VALID LEGAL DOCUMENT. alot of potential small scale and medium scale investments are held back especially in rural areas for fear of losing land with its investment in future when the CORRUPT ARE GIVEN SWATHS OF LAND THAT ENTIRE KINGDOMS!! This suggestion will certainly facilitate investment especially in agriculture!!
Map out the chief’s land in one title deed. Devide the land into one acre plots. Let the chiefs allocate the land to their own people. Make sure they don’t allocate to foreigners (remember how chiefs sold their people into slavery). Chiefs must first create an administrative office at the palace to deal with land and have the government audit the allocations to make sure they are following rules. We already have a history of people in high places being corrupt. Therefore there must be an annual audit.
Good idea, some chiefs will abuse the power if given that opportunity.