Customary land law to ease disputes

Senior Chief Nazombe of Phalombe says  implementation of land governance project in the district through the use of new customary land law would ease land disputes among communities.

She said in an interview on Tuesday that the project would enable traditional leaders to focus on other development needs of the area.

Nazombe expressed gratitude that the implementation of the project is encouraging land ownership for both men and women, including their children.

“We have had cases of land grabbing and disputes among villages and most of the time traditional leaders were preoccupied in settling land cases because communities were not aware on their rights to own land,” she said.

The chief commended government for providing new customary land law which has a component of empowering women and children to own land.

Department of Surveying and Mapping deputy surveyor general for mapping Alice Gwedeza said the registration process being carried out through the project is adding value to the pieces of land in villages..

“We still have challenges on mapping process where issues of village boundaries are taking centre stage in the exercise. Sometimes we are being delayed because of these issues in some districts,” she said. The four-year project, is being implemented by a consortium of Oxfam in Malawi and Centre for Environmental and Advocacy in collaboration with Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development with funding from European Union (EU).