State revokes sisal estate ownership

PRESIDENT John Magufuli has revoked the ownership of five undeveloped sisal estates and a farm in Tanga Region, so that the land may be redistributed to other investors and the ‘wananachi’.

The decision was announced here yesterday by the Minister of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Mr William Lukuvi, when he held a meeting with the Tanga Region Safety and Security Committee.

He said the decision of the government to repossess the five undeveloped farms was reached by President Magufuli since December 19, last year. He mentioned the estates as Lewa, Sagula, Bwembela, Kihuhi and Tilapula farm all in Muheza District.

He said the government was still making a follow up on other farms in the region to get detailed information whether they have been developed or have been left undeveloped before taking further action.“There are other farms in this region for which we don’t have enough details. I have the list of them and I’m going to hand this list to the regional commissioner so that she can find out what is in those farms and if it is determined that the former investors failed to develop them, the government will repossess the farms,” he said.

He directed Tanga regional authorities to make assessment of the farms in a quest to know its properties and the ‘wananchi’ living in them, so that the state can come up with a better plan for use of the land.

“We want to change the use of the land but the ‘wananchi’ are not allowed to invade the land right now until the regional government and other stakeholders come up with advice on how the land should be used.

“However, not all land will be redistributed, but you must preserve a part of it for future uses,” he suggested. Speaking about land disputes, he said Tanga Region was leading in the country as his office was receiving many calls and text messages concerning the problem.

He said since President Magufuli’s government is determined to end land disputes in the country within this year, he as a minister responsible for land issues will not sleep until the problem ends. He warned that he would spare no land officer who in one way or another seemed to violate the land law and cause disputes.

In another development, Mr Lukuvi directed the National Housing Corporation (NHC) to apply simple technology and cheap labour so that the cost of its houses may go down to enable more Tanzanians to buy them. He gave the directive earlier when he addressed NHC workers in Tanga Region at their office premises here.

He said NHC is a government entity, therefore it should not engage in business as other firms do, but it should rather focus on giving services to the ‘wananchi’ to enable them to own better houses at lower costs. “As a government corporation, we have given you a responsibility of constructing better but cheap houses and sell them at lower costs that are affordable to every Tanzanian.

We will neither measure you by the standards of buildings nor the number of houses you build but by the low cost of your houses,” he said. He said the current trend of prices of houses NHC has been building and selling was not friendly to people in the low income bracket, because they were unable to buy them, thus the story would remain the same that only rich people may buy the houses.

During the campaign last year, President Magufuli had pledged to repossess all undeveloped farms and redistribute them to other people for development.

/Daily News.