President wants changes to land law

Mozambican President Daniel Chapo has called for a more ‘robust and predictable land law’, according to the Club of Mozambique. Speaking at a session of the Consultative Land Forum, Chapo stressed that the principles of state ownership of the land should remain untouched. That means that the ‘land belongs to all of us, as Mozambican citizens’. The ban on buying, selling, renting or mortgaging land should remain in force, he said, but mechanisms could be introduced to trade land right titles (known as DUAT). He warned that there should be no exclusion of the poor from land tenure, since that would run the risk of creating ‘a landless class’. Likewise, there should be no exclusion of women and young people from land tenure. When land is granted for public or private investment, said Chapo, there must be prior consultation with or negotiation with the affected communities, who must be paid the due compensation envisaged under the law. It was crucial, the President added, to ‘combat the practice of crimes such as the sale of land, which result in the practice of acts of corruption in the attribution of land rights. We must eradicate these damaging practices which undermine the development of our communities and cause conflicts between investors and local communities’.

Full report on the Club of Mozambique site