Land, housing and politics

Land is the most important resource. It gives us identity as it has identifiable boundaries which we swear to protect at all cost. Land is the most important resource made available to us and it only comes next to our humanly bodies.

Our responsibility is to manage this very important resource for our own benefit. We have an outstanding warning that as a result of our failure to manage our land resource the majority of our people (over 60 percent) shall be living in slums in a very short period indeed. So it is imperative to me that Malawians should know what the politicians are promising or at least what they are saying about land and housing.

What do the various manifestos say and how feasible is what is being promised? Should matters about this important resource be ignored or be just part of policy statements on the economy or other sectors?

I think this sector deserves very special attention. The state of our built environment is pathetic. There is an old Land Act but a new land policy. There is a Decentralisation Policy since 1999 and an Act of Parliament which is supposed to empower local authorities to provide many things including serviced land and housing.

The country has also a national housing corporation which struggling to mobilise financial resources to make an impact but is failing miserably. However, the Decentralisation Act is not being enforced for some reason. The country does not have a building society or any form of housing finance other than the commercial banks and similar institutions.

Rural areas have numerous land challenges including the role of traditional leaders, ownership of land by women and men in both patriarchal and matriarchal societies, privatisation of land by citizens and industry, lack of coordination of efforts by non-governmental organisations and other players. Local authorities are not enforcing building bye-laws mainly due to corruption.

The coming in of democracy and multiparty politics brought back our human rights and freedom but it also brought an element of disobedience, rudeness and insurgency to a few citizens which need to be brought under control immediately.

Malawians are known for being peace loving people, humble and reliable, but this has faded and we need to go backwards. That change is required is obvious, but initially we need to have the political will. Surely this is a very important sector for this country and it needs the attention of the Presidential candidates.

For a long time, since independence the country’s population has been growing and now stands at about 15 million and there is no comprehensive legal framework for land and there is no Housing Act and even though there is a Housing Policy whose implementation is rather muted. Practitioners in the sector seem to ignore legal requirements.

There is quite a lot of life threatening architectural designs by non qualified persons, illegal land surveying and vending of land or real estate by unscrupulous and usually unqualified persons. Building regulations do not at all exist and if they do, they are ignored blatantly and nothing is ever done by the local authorities or anybody at all.

This sector needs most immediate attention. At the rate we are going, our urban centres will look the same as the slums before the year 2034. This is a plea to our political leadership, but then I wonder whether I need to plead at all as what is going on in our built environment can be seen with the naked eye by any one and should cause concern. Recently there was a radio programme on the lack of street lights in most of our cities. The dangers to our own life were well articulated.

In defence, some official of a council stated that it is not mandatory to have street lighting and in any case it is expensive as it is always increasing. Really? Is this the attitude we, as a nation, should have on service delivery to our population?

This is the attitude leading to chaos in building because bye-laws cannot be enforced as keeping building rangers would be expensive and as the population increases, more buildings are built and the issue of enforcing bye-laws becomes increasingly expensive and since it may not be obligatory then it is much cheaper not to do anything at all.

I would think that immediate change is necessary as it would be consequential and critical. In conclusion, I would insist that our politicians need to take the issue of land management, control of the built environment and matters to do with power to the local authorities or decentralisation very seriously indeed and to show commitment they may need to sign a social contract.

—The author is a land economist, a valuation surveyor and a housing expert of international standing.