Questioning chiefs’ power over customary land

T/A Kachindamoto of Dedza has not hidden her displeasure with the passed Land Bill currently awaiting President Joyce Banda’s signature.

She told The Nation last week that this will definitely mean “we don’t need chiefs anymore because when we say ‘Chalo’ we mean the land”.

“How will people call us ‘Chalo’ when we have no powers over land?” she wondered.

Interestingly, Kachindamoto is raising these questions at a time when dust is failing to settle in her jurisdiction over the administration of customary land.

Locals from group village head Kamzati and Chigwandali are strongly protesting what they call ‘their chiefs selling of their land’ to other people who want to use it for a sugar cane factory.

“We are not against development in our area. But we need development that is going to benefit us. This sugar cane factory is just taking away land which we use for farming and grazing our cattle and goats. They want us to move away and go to the hills. Is that development?” says Isaac Phiri, from Kamzati Village, who is among the many that have been arrested for protesting the move.

He feels their chiefs are not listening to them.

“We went to the district commissioner but we have not been helped yet. We have gone to Lilongwe to meet the principal secretary. We didn’t find him but we met his secretary who assured us that government will look into the issue,” he says.

Dedza district commissioner Siphiwe Mauwa confirmed to have been approached by some business people who want land for a sugar cane plantation in the area under T/A Kachindamoto.

“The lease has not been granted, but they have presented their business plan to the District Executive Committee (DEC). They need 1 300 hectares. Should they be granted the land, the people to be affected by the project, according to our research, are not more than five because it is an idle land,” she says.

T/A Kachindamoto adds that the people looking for the land come from the area, not “foreigners as locals assert”.

“The land we have settled on is idle. It is a dambo that nobody lives on or cultivates. In fact, it is me who initiated the idea of the project because I want my people to benefit from the development that will come with the factory,” she says.

But the people—without the support of the chiefs—maintain the land earmarked is used for their cultivation and grazing.

“As we are talking, they have already planted nurseries in some areas. We do not want this, yet every day we see people in big vehicles across the village,” says Konesta Simboni, 68, from Njoka Village, who says he was arrested for protesting against the project.

But although the lease has not been granted, the project has already taken off. In Chikomba Village, a nursery has already been planted, and T/A Kachindamoto confirmed this.

Stories of people disagreeing on the ‘leasing off of their land’ by the chiefs without their knowledge are quite common in Malawi these days.

At Senga Bay in Salima last year, villagers protested the eviction from their land after an investor, Silrage Sultan, had ‘bought’ their land along Lake Malawi to build a five star hotel.

In Chikhwawa, a number of villagers are landless after the chiefs had successfully leased off, without their approval, 1 000 hectares of land they used for farming.

Early this year, irate residents from group village head (GVH) Mgwinthi in the area of Senior Chief Kanyenda in Nkhotakota forced government to suspend implementation of a multi-million dollar sugar cane project due to unresolved land disputes.

These cases, according to Yvonne M’mangisa, national coordinator at Land Net Malawi, reveal flaws in the administration of customary land in Malawi.

“There is no transparency in the way customary land is administered in the country. This gives room to corruption creeping because the system is not open to the public. I am not surprised there are all these conflicts between the chiefs and the people,” M’mangisa says.

An officer who participated in the drafting of the law, but asked not to be named, told The Nation that the law seeks to curb corruption among chiefs over land matters.

“These chiefs have not been transparent on a number of occasions on matters of land. If we are not careful, one day they will sell this country off,” said the officer.

And this dates back to pre-colonial times, when chiefs had complete control of land. In the colonial and post-colonial period, where land belonged to the Queen and the president respectively, chiefs have been notorious in entering into ‘shoddy’ land deals with interested parties.

T/A Kabunduli of Nkhata Bay and T/A Lukwa of Kasungu laughed off the idea that the new Land Bill will curb corruption among chiefs.

“Look, land belongs to people. So, what corruption are you talking about?” T/A Kabunduli said in an earlier interview with The Nation.

However, according to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) governance and corruption survey, chiefs in Malawi are the most corrupt sector only second to the police.

It is against this background that the new Land Bill, according to those who drafted it, has been put in place to “largely help curb corruption that is rampant among chiefs who currently have overall powers on issues of customary land distribution”.

“The Customary Land Bill (2012) seeks to repeal the Customary Land (Development Act) chapter 59:01 and replace it with new legislation on the management and regulation of customary land as advocated by the National Land Policy.

“The Bill further provides for the creation of committees and tribunals which will be empowered to carry out the function of land allocation, adjudication and management, and settlement of customary land disputes,” reads a memorandum in the introduction of the Bill.

M’mangisa, says her organization will support any legislation on the administration of customary land as long as it promotes transparency.n