Mozambique: Nyusi defends right of access to land

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Mozambique: Nyusi defends right of access to land

5:02 CAT | 01 Aug 2022

Photo: O País

Mozambican president Filipe Nyusi on Thursday declared that the government’s “Secure Land” Programme is implementing the constitutional right of access to land for citizens, particularly for those who live in the rural areas.

“The country is making history as regards the effective right to land. The people, especially the disadvantaged communities, now have access to this vital resource,” said the president, in the locality of Cateme, Moatize district, in the central province of Tete.

Nyusi also delivered Land Use Titles (DUATs) to the population of Cateme, declaring that this expressed the government’s commitment to protect the communities on the land”

This act, according to the President, represents, at the same time, an important milestone in the implementation of “the programme which we launched in 2015, in Manhiça district, Maputo province, whose goal is to register and regularize five million plots occupied, according to customary norms and practices, in good faith, as well as the delimitation of five thousand rural communities, within the framework of the programme.”

“We know how important secure land tenure is, particularly for the most disadvantaged citizens, especially women”, stressed Nyusi.

He noted that most Mozambicans have land as their most important resource, because it guarantees their survival, and represents their cultural identity, particularly at this time when society is experiencing many transformations.

“I am talking about the transition to a market economy, generational transition, technological and cultural transition, rapid urbanization, population growth, and the entry of new investments, including in the area of land”, he explained.

Nyusi recalled that land is a universal means for the creation of wealth and social well-being and that, under the country’s constitution, “its use and enjoyment is the right of all Mozambicans.”

He explained that formal recognition of access to land can be done in three ways: first, by occupation according to ancestral practices, norms and customs; second, by occupation in good faith, and using it for ten years, and third obtaining land by request and by permission of the State.

Thus, according to the President, the Secure Land Programme intends to accelerate the implementation of the first two forms, to ensure that the majority of Mozambicans have access to land without too much inconvenience and as soon as possible.

The programme, he added, also intends to avoid the existence of Mozambicans without access to land “because they cannot read or write, or because they do not speak Portuguese, or because they are farmers, or because they have no money, or because they are poor, or because they live in rural areas, or because they are women, or because they are orphans, or because they are displaced, among many other reasons.”

The President stressed that since the programme was launched, more than 1.5 million plots of land have been registered and regularized, and more than 700,000 DUATs have been delivered throughout the country.

The Five-Year Plan for 2020/2024 envisages the delivery of two million DUATs under this programme, and since 2020 until the first half of this year, according to Nyusi, 315,455 DUATs have been delivered.

“We are protecting Mozambicans, we are protecting the future of their children”, he stressed, appealing to the beneficiaries to keep their documents in order to ensure the protection of their land rights.

Source: AIM