Mozambique: Land Policy goes to review – Carta

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Mozambique: Land Policy goes to review – Carta

4:13 CAT | 16 Jul 2020

File photo: DW

President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi this morning launched, in the city of Matola, Maputo province, the public hearing phase of the National Land Policy review, which will culminate in the revision of Law no. 19/97, of October 1, called the Land Law.

According to a Presidency press release, the review of the National Land Policy aims to “produce a participatory and inclusive political-legal and institutional framework that best responds to the challenges of social and economic growth and ensures that the use and appropriation of the land is at the service of Mozambicans, through a management which respects the State’s ownership of the land”.

With the country’s economic and population growth, the demand for land for housing and investment has grown across the country, often culminating in conflicts. The current National Land Policy affirms that all land is owned by the state and cannot be sold, divested, mortgaged or subject to attachment. That rule, however, is not being observed, and there are big land deals involving, in some cases, public managers, especially district officials and district administrators.

Consequently, the issue of land privatisation has dominated public discourse in recent years, with some advocating privatisation in response to the current “looting” of land. However, there are those who oppose its privatisation, claiming that this would exclude many citizens from access to resources.

The current National Land Policy also provides for ‘customary law’, which gives the community, through public consultations, the power to issue an opinion in case of land concession. In fact, public consultation processes have proved to be decisive in the stopping of investment projects considered “expropriation” of land by popular consent, as in the case of the Tripartite Cooperation Program for Agricultural Development of Savana Tropical in Mozambique (ProSAVANA ), which, as a result of popular resistance, never progressed.

Source: Carta de Moçambique