CSOs: Land Law can go to review – Mozambique

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CSOs: Land Law can go to review – Mozambique

1:09 CAT | 13 Dec 2018

Olga Langa. Photo: O País

The misapplications and misinterpretations of Land Law which have led civil society organisations (CSOs) to promote a debate on the legal framework surrounding land may merit a revision by the competent structures.

CSOs came together at a Regional South Workshop in Inhambane this Wednesday to rally support for a Land Law revision. The meeting was attended by leaders from various parts of Inhambane, Gaza and Maputo provinces, students, academics and community leaders.

Olga Langa, representing the Civil Society Alliance against Land Grabs [Aliança da Sociedade Civil contra Usurpação de Terra] said that if the law was not revised “we will reach a point where Mozambique will have no land for its own children”. Langa argues that, for Africans, land is their inheritance, and if people are only allowed to register a small area, generations to come must be protected.

Olga Macupulane, representative of the Association for the Promotion and Development of Women [Associação para Promoção e Desenvolvimento da Mulher], argues that the amounts communities obtain from “land sales” or from land improvements do not compensate the natives. “It is urgent that improvements for the communities are guaranteed,” she said.

Called to react, Rodrigues Tamele, a representative of the Inhambane provincial government, argued that the idea of customary occupation must be stopped. “Because someone was born in that place and his ancestors always lived there, he thinks that that alone is enough to say that the land belongs to him.”

The identification of procedures to influence the provision of quality services to users and the Right of Land Use are among several points under discussion.

By Hermenegildo Socrates

Source: O País