Must evades fight over land

Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must) embarked on legal processes and successfully registered the land where the public university sits at former president Bingu wa Mutharika’s Ndata Farm in Thyolo District.

The registration under counsel from the office of the Attorney General (AG), by the Lands Registrar legitimises Must as legal owners of the land donated  orally and publicly to the Malawi Government by the late Bingu in 2009.

Following Bingu’s death in April 2012, his family, through his children, put up a claim in later years to be paid for the land. However, the claim was not successful.

The family later moved to claim rentals from Must directly, but government rejected the bid.

It has since transpired that Must undertook legal processes and had the land registered into the name of the university, a development that now denies the Mutharika family legal ownership.

AG Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda confirmed in an interview on Wednesday that Must sought his office’s legal opinion which was provided in June 2022.

He declined to disclose how Must registered the land and the contents of the legal opinion.

Ironically, the Mutharika family expressed ignorance about the development.

In a written response yesterday, Duwa Mutharika Mubaira, one of the daughters of the former president, said the family was not aware that Must registered the land in its name.

“However, we have been in talks with government regarding the university,” she said, but could not take further questions such as how much the family was claiming from Must in rentals.

But a source at Ministry of Lands privy to the AG’s legal opinion said the AG advised Must that after Bingu directed to have the university on the land in question in 2009, there had never been uninterrupted peaceable and open use of the said 195.31 hectares by firstly the Malawi Government, in trust for Must, and, thereafter, Must itself.

The legal opinion to Must vice-chancellor stated that despite several efforts to persuade the trustees of Bineth Trust, run by the Mutharika family, to sign the land transfer instruments in favour of Must, the trustees had either neglected or refused.

At the time of Bingu’s death, he had not executed the land transfer instruments.

Reads the opinion: “You [vice-chancellor] indicated to me [during the meeting we had] that failure to have the land transferred in the name of Must has gravely affected Must’s ability to acquire loans and grants as the prospective financiers consider land ownership as key to lending to an institution of higher learning in the position of Must.

“I advised you that the quickest way of resolving the impasse was for you to apply to the Land Registrar for registration as proprietor of the land by prescription pursuant to Section 134(2) of the Registered Land Act.

“Section 134 of the Registered Land Act provides that the ownership of land may be acquired by peaceable, open and uninterrupted possession without the permission of any person lawfully entitled to such possession for a period of twelve years. This advice was given upon discovery that Must has been in uninterrupted possession of the land stated above for a period of over 12 years.”

Must registrar Alfred Chinombo, according to a letter we have seen to the Lands Registrar in the Ministry of Lands dated July 5 2022, made the application to have the land registered in Must’s name.

The letter reads: “Section 134 of the Registered Land Act provides as follows: (1) The ownership of land may be acquired by peaceable, open and uninterrupted possession without the permission of any person lawfully entitled to such possession for a period of twelve years…it is our position that the provisions of the above section apply to our situation,” the university registrar wrote, and made the application to acquire the land.

Officials at the Ministry of Lands told the media later after Bingu’s death in 2012 that documents were sent to State House for the former president to sign, but they were not yet to be returned.

They said when Bingu made a verbal offer of the land in 2009, Ministry of Lands were dealing with him to provide a written offer.

Construction of Must started in 2011 and during groundbreaking for the project in April that year, Bingu reiterated that he had donated the land to the Malawi nation the land to be the campus for the university.

“We shall all benefit from this. It does not belong to me,” he publicly declared.

Initially, the university was supposed to be constructed in Lilongwe.

In November 2020, the Mutharika family wrote former AG Chikosa Silungwe claiming the piece of land on which the State-owned Must was built.

Civil Society Education Coalition executive director Benedicto Kondowe is on record to have described the Mutharika family’s claim over ownership of Must as fraudulent.

Malawi and China launched construction of the science university after China made available an $80 million bank loan facility payable in 20 years, with a five-year grace period.

The Ndata Farm land was initially owned by the defunct State-run Malawi Development Corporation but there was no record that Bingu paid for it.