The House of Chiefs has rejected the draft National Land Policy document which was in the process of being finalised and submitted to cabinet for approval.
House of Chiefs Chairperson, Chief Ngabwe says traditional leaders have rejected the document on grounds that the Land policy is allegedly trying to temper with the Chieftaincy.
The traditional leader has also accused some civil servants of working against President Edgar Lungu because they did not submit the concerns that were presented by the Chiefs to the Ministry of Lands and Natural resources.
Chief Ngabwe was speaking during the national validation meeting for the draft Land policy which was attended by about 22 Chiefs from the 10 provinces.
Traditional Leaders walked out of the meeting immediately after Chief Ngabwe concluded his statement.
And Minister of Lands and Natural Resources Jean Kapata said the move by the traditional leaders has come as a surprise.
Ms Kapata said the ministry has made efforts to consult the traditional leader on the land policy.
She said the ministry will however remain available to dialogue with the traditional leaders on the matter.
Lungu and Kapata just want more land to SELL to the Chinese! These greedy thieves will never stop until there is nothing left to sell in Zambia, and their bank accounts are overflowing.
KOSWE eating again!
Do away with chiefs. They are colonial and backwards.
Thanks
BB2014,2016
Jean Kapata did not only want land to sale and share money amongest PF thieves ( ubomba mwibala alya mwibala) but Jean also wanted to have authority of land so that she could freely trade in Mukula tree the business she is known for. Kudos to the chiefs!! Zambians are nolonger dull to be manipulated by PF documented thieves bearing names of ministries no. We are in 21st century not colonial time.
why do Zambians feel the president is stealing?
@Governor, it’s not a feeling! They see him stealing using proxies.
Zambians take interest and see what is contained in the land policy. Some traditional leaders ARE BING GREEDY, they have treated Zambia like their own business, they sell land at will and to whoever pleases them. Some have become so rich they can even afford Limozines, WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF ZAMBIANS? Why should we be at the mercy of chiefs even to just obtain a mere title deed. Some chiefs will not empower people by helping them obtain title deeds, they would rather control the land and people remain their subjects forever, SURELY IN THIS DAY AND AGE!!! LET THEM KNOW THE LAND IS FOR ALL ZAMBIANS. If Government is in control it can help distribute the land equitably to Zambians and not just Chiefs and their relatives. Look beyond PF and think about ordinary citizens and their future,…
@governor
I don’t know if you just landed in Zambia a few hours ago and don’t know anything about president lungu. It’s not a “feeling”, lungu is a bonafide thief. This is public knowledge.
This why they want to remove everything related to tribe on your NRCs so that chiefs will represent no one and lose their status in society, we warned you chiefs not to support blindly, mwaona manje mwagwela mutobwa.
What type of reporting is this…whats in the draft that stands out?
Good for them for rejecting this nonsense. More greed!
What nonsense exactly? The article provides zero detail on the content of the bill. How can the public have a sensible discussion with no information?
We know where it’s going tata! More land will be sold brother. Wake up
It becomes a big problem when wrong people like john wakeup.
Chiefs are the ones selling land at will. In Northwestern province one chief has solds half of his chiefdom pushing his subjects out,
yotam – you are right…just ask how AVIC got 1000+ hectares present from Mumbwa Chief!!
It also depends on who brought AVIC to the chief, any rejection from the chief, he will be labelled OPPOSITION.
Ba Lusaka times, please explain further on what the land policy has kaili
Lusakatimes is just someone sitting with a keyboard copying and pasting stuff on the internet. What do you expect?
That online facebook reporters for you…useless no pride in tgeir work!!
I commend our chiefs for walking out; let them stand strong and make sure that Lungu and his ministers don’t give our land to the Chinese; already they want to destroy the area of the source of the Zambezi through the Chinese; we will be a landless people with the Chinese;
Will you please tell us why they walked out? Are they also an opposition political Party? They put their points across, hopefully. But why then walk out? Who sponsored the walk out? This disrespectful and uncalled for.
If you talking and people are walking out from you just know that it is either uou are speaking rubish or you are wasting people’s precious time. As soon they leave you look foolish with useless agenda in the hands.
It is so fun that even educated people debate ignorance
What section did not please the chiefs? The article did not specify and yet cadres on this site are already excited!
That is why you are contributing?
Just asking? – ill you please answer the question that Amagenge has asked, instead of just falling in his first statement.
Lesson learnt. South Africa and Zimbabwe have resorted to grabbing the land back without compensation. Imwe in Zambia, that is when you want to surrender your land to foreigners. Whatever goes around, comes around.
I hope ECL and Kapata will get all the needed votes from the Chinese whom they worship dearly.
LOL Imfumu temunobe. Lest we forget, Chiefs managed to take out all suggested new land provisions out of what has become the current constitution. Trouble is that chieftaincy is tied to land control. Tough luck Hon. Kapata even the draft constitution had wide consultation but Chiefs had their way on land. You need to engage them separately otherwise new policy will not pass. There is too much confusion on land issue in Zambia nowonder a policy took 10 plus years to develop. Our pace of doing things, kaya!
My take is that both our traditional leaders and BOMA need to be more accountable when it comes to land.
It would be nice to expand further on what some of the points are in the Draft National Land Policy for those of us following this story for the first time
Chiefs have been custodians of land long before govts were born. The policy wants to exclude them from the process to alienate land. The policy is worse than what our colonizers left because at independence 95% of land was in the hands of chiefs. Now you want to vest all land in one person, the President. This will definitely be a source of conflict because locals will be displaced by people with papers from Lusaka
People in Serenje have been affected because commercial farmers have even fenced off their natural sources of water. Chiefs are helpless. In Siavonga Tongas now climb hills to see the Kariba because the whole waterfront has been taken away. There’s currently no provision to revert state land to customary, so once sold then that’s it. That’s what the policy needed to address. So Jean must tread carefully, some chiefs sleep at graveyards. Chemical Mukuni said it
This policy will make hh grab more land like he in namwala if ever he won elections. Ba lungu ninshi kanshi?
Hater fuseki
@8 Jason Good point. the only document available online is the first draft policy done in 2007.
@ 9 Ayatollah. I agree with your observations except one. Constitutionally, land is vested in the President. But how this is understood and practiced is complicated and unclear because there is customary land which is also recognized constitutionally. While the new policy may be meant to address lacunas, Chiefs suspect it as an attempt to usurp their control over land.
The ministry is making veiled consultations that’s why they haven’t made it easily available. That Constitutional recognition was made in FTJ time after a lot of lobbying. What they want to remove is the requirement for a chief to consent before land is sold. Some chiefs have released land for development in new districts which is as should be because they will know which one to reserve for their subjects. Why does govt want to take that role from chiefs? It’s mischievous
It is a surprise to me to learn that Kapata got surprised at the move the Chiefs took. Did she expect them to say Yes to every mischief they plan to execute? Things have changed Madam, We are now having more educated Chiefs.
Land is a means of production, even the areas where we have minerals are under traditional lands, come see what is going on here in Livingstone ,all areas along the Zambezi river have been sold by chief Mukuni,to benefit his family, the man is very rich,if the fear is that foreigners will take our land even chiefs should stop selling our which they hold on our behalf and not for themselves. Look at western province no development, and some of you complain that the government is on taking development to northern province, it’s because Chiefs in these are not so rigid and understand that land is a requisite for development, look at the farm blocks coming up in the northern part of our country.
Continue keeping your land and you will continue complaining about under development and the few…
Loud and smart, am not being disparaging towards you but you brought BOMA why domwe still refer to BOMA my understanding that that is the acronym for British Overseas Military Administration. Do we still have a hangover
Dethrone all the Chiefs first and then advance the land policy. We cant be hampered by illiterate polygamists called Chiefs. They are not land experts. Leave this issue to experts.
Time you learnt that amongst the chiefs are masters holders and one I know is a fully qualified Civil Engineer!! They are not as ignorant as you think!!
@14 Masalamuso. Lol You have a good sense of humour! I have hangovers. I promise to be sober. Meant to say GRZ. No offense taken.
Continued ,of your rich tribesmen like HH in in Namwala
Former VP employees haven’t received their pension because the UPND expert got $40M from Saturnia and invested in Cayman island. The same expert left Luanshya on its knees, today his followers ululate him as very rich when he can’t explain how he got that wealth. We don’t need that expertise.
Utter rubbish, debate responsibly iwe kolwe.
The chiefs have just the right thing the Land policy which the PF are trying to introduce is making them more unpopular much trying to attempt to our NRC s .please PF stop it
In our culture if somebody approach you with money and says he wants you to choose him as your leader or headman you’ll shun him and question his motive. But today he’ll get the most votes! Some people are supporting the 2 Zambian tycoons not for their wisdom but money. What went wrong? So called experts are stealing by the gross.
Land is a birth right to every zambian, i mean how could one boast to be a citizen when u dont even own any land! the current situation is that land is very xpensive to acquire for ordinary zambians making it for easy foreigners to own land! my observation is that in the near future foreigners will have taken up the whole entire land in zambia and we have to rent from them!!!! Land reforms and policies must be given the serious attention it deserves
this same chiefs get excited when giving out land to foreigners, they need to be monitored very closely!
@20/21 Dr. Ngosa. You make valid points. Trouble is both ways-GRZ and Chiefs. On the on hand, Some Chiefs dish out land indiscriminately for a token which they think is lots of money. Mumbwa is a case in point. On the other hand, some govt. land agencies are very corrupt. Ndola City council, for instance. Even with the best of policies/laws, we still need to value our land/country as Zambians. We are already in trouble.
u are right on point!
We have to be so careful with matters of Land in this country, follow events in other countries, look at what happened to Zimbabwe and now see what is going to happen in South Africa in a few weeks to come-expropriation of land without compensation. We want development yes but lets be careful with the way we giving out land to outsiders leaving our own citizens in the periphery or rather without Land empowerment.
This is why I think a minister like Jean Kapata is ill equipped to be discussing sich serious matters…
Exactly Simon. While a 10 year long process seems enough consultation, this was a very sparse process with several moments of discontinuity. I doubt if there are many who have followed the process from the start to where it is now. Hon Kapata and her team need to talk to Chiefs again. I mean sincerely.
thats the only way to go! come up with policies which will benefits zambians not chiefs, gvt officials or jst foreigners
Can anything good come from PF run govt??? The day of reckoning draws near! Ill-gotten wealth dwindles like dew after midday
Don’t blame the chiefs for the walkout, for them Land is for the chief as the crown is for King though this may not be true. A lot of bad things have been said about the president in the past by people who know him. He is not known to be a generous man, and now people believe that whatever he does is meant to benefit him and him alone and the chiefs are aware of this. Fortunately Chiefs are not like pastors who throw away their well articulated program into the bin after dangling a carrot in front of them. Not all chiefs can be corrupted.
The Chiefs have done a don’t Kubeba to the PF government. Kudos to the collective new look and educated House of Chiefs. Things will never be the same!
Whatever it is I know for sure that Lazy Lungu will first try to bride them with more allowances…the man is too weak and corrupt.
In 1995 the land reform was rejected by chiefs and other stakeholders. However the MMD sneaked it through parliament. I salute the chiefs because traditional land protects a lot of our vulnerable villagers who otherwise wouldn’t have land to build their huts and shambas. Also I agree with Chief Ngabwe on how some civil servants are bringing government down. A certain political party has infiltrated government through certain civil servants to frustrate government.
I knew it, some psychopath will diarrhoea something about the innocent opposition
A young man in a village who has become of age and wants to get married will usually want somewhere to settle with his wife away from his parents home. A chief (through the headman) will surely give him some place to start his newly married life, build his hut and possibly somewhere to starting tilling land. This would not happen if land was in the hands of government or commercial farmer
Facts are facts no matter what you say you won’t change anything.
I supported the MMD and now I support the PF but when it comes to land it’s a different ball altogether. Obtaining land which is owned by government (6%) is like forcing a camel through the proverbial eye of a needle. It’s expensive and complicated. We have villagers who cultivate and live on land under jurisdiction of chiefs. What happens if the land is “commercialized “? 98% of our problems are as a result of privitizing of the mines . Reforming land would just increase our problems.
The matters concerning land must be looked at with more caution ,some chiefs are careless who can easily sell land on a song we need responsible people especially those in power whom we can interrogate for good answers .
Some chiefs are so un wise that they can even sell land on a packet of cigarettes, the government can be answerable to the citizens than some of our traditional rulers , government can put laws into place to protect the land from scrupulous individuals who would like to take advantage of the ignorance of our chiefs in villages .
Comment:could all the steak holders go back and draw the land policy. Having a document in place is a must.
Stakeholders not steak holders.
A country’s progress cannot be stopped by traditional healers/chiefs. What difference does it make. The chiefs are selling land and recommending title. Governments wants land on title so that rentals can be paid for each piece of land.
De-gazette the Chiefs Law, whatever it is. We need development. Don’t pay these polygamists anything for two years and reject all recommendations of land sale from them. Then no one would like to be a chief. Don’t hold any traditional ceremonies. Starve them. Some ceremonies are encouraging tribalism/early marriages. Remove the name of the Chiefs from the NRC and Just leave that of the District. Replace that space where it says Chief with religion or something worth it like colour of eyes or hair.
Then they will renounce their positions.
Was Namwala represented by Chieftainess, O, sorry by Paramount Chief HH?
These chiefs do not play. They just got up and walked out kikikiki. I salute the Chiefs for standing up for the people of Zambia.
Can somebody make available this document online so that we avoid firing blanks. Either by PDF or any other means
Chief Monze was elected the President of Chiefs!