Land board issues 15 000 rights certificates

THE outgoing Communal Land Board issued 15 085 different classes of land rights certificates during its three-year tenure.

This was said by minister of agriculture, water and land reform Calle Schlettwein during the inauguration of the Communal Land Board for the seventh term at Oshakati on Monday.

The board, whose term ran from 1 March 2018 to 28 February this year, issued 4 331 existing customary land rights certificates to people who have been occupying their pieces of land before 2002 in terms of the Communal Land Reform Act.

The board also issued 9 823 new customary land rights certificates to people who occupied their land after 2003 as well as 494 rights of leasehold certificates. They also issued 110 occupational land rights certificates and 327 transfer land rights certificates during this period.

“Although great achievements were recorded over the last three years, there is still an outstanding 30 007 applications for both existing customary land rights and new customary land rights which need to be registered and issued to the land rights holders.

“I appeal to you board members to develop a target orientated strategy that will complete the registration of all outstanding applications in your respective regions, especially for existing customary land rights,” Schlettwein said.

He added that about 198 land disputes had so far been resolved, while four illegal fences in communal land had been removed.

During the same period, 46 judgements were delivered in appeals against the communal land board’s decisions.

“The allocation of unreasonably big pieces of land on commonages is another concern. Some communal land boards have been approving land rights exceeding 50 hectares for customary land rights exceeding 100 hectares in cases of rights of leasehold.

“This is in contravention of the provisions of the Communal Land Reform Act. Many of those allocations have led to unnecessary disputes and litigation processes. I thus urge you all to refrain from this practice and be compliant with the provisions of the law. We are seized with the resolutions of the second National Land Conference which call for preservation of commonage and the removal of illegal fences among many others,” said Schlettwein.

He urged the new board members to apply fairness in land applications, act with urgency on all applications and reduce self-induced land disputes and to create awareness to the provisions of the act, with emphasis on illegal sand mining, deforestation and illegal fencing.

Oshana governor, Elia Irimari said that the communal land boards and the traditional authorities play a crucial role in administering communal land and ensuring that citizens have equal access to land rights within communal areas.

“With government support, we have over the years observed an improvement in the process of land applications attended by the communal land boards and I urge members to accelerate the land application process so that development is not delayed,” he said.

The new board will serve from 1 March 2021 to 28 February 2024.