Land grabbers given just 14 DAYS to hand back stolen plots as minister Chipungu vows crackdown on fake title deeds

Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Chimwemwe Chipungu has issued a stark ultimatum to anyone illegally occupying or grabbing public and institutional land, demanding they voluntarily vacate or surrender the properties within just 14 days – as a bombshell audit exposed sweeping failures across Lilongwe’s land administration system.

The dramatic warning came as Chipungu unveiled the long-awaited findings of the ministry’s Land Ownership Audit at a press briefing held at the Ministry’s conference room in Zowe House, Lilongwe, on Wednesday.

The pilot audit, launched on 23 February 2026 following an announcement in January, focused on Lilongwe’s Areas 3 and 10 – two of the capital’s most sought-after residential and commercial districts – and examined six departments spanning Lands, Physical Planning, Surveys, Estates Management and Valuation, the Land Information Management System (LIMS), and Housing.

The scale of the dysfunction uncovered proved staggering. Auditors found that Area 3 had 791 allocated plots while Area 10 had a further 604 – though Chipungu admitted even these figures were based on incomplete records, given that the ministry’s cadastral layout maps date back to 2016 and fail to capture years of subsequent subdivisions, infill plots and land extensions.

Chipungu revealed that land records across every department were in a state of chronic disarray, with officials frequently unable to trace survey drawings, development approvals, lease transfer documents or basic payment receipts – a level of administrative chaos that has made it virtually impossible to establish clear, reliable ownership records.

The audit further exposed widespread non-compliance with Malawi’s land laws, revealing that most plots in Areas 3 and 10 remain entirely unregistered, alongside a string of other serious breaches including plots left undeveloped decades after being leased, unauthorised changes of land use, unapproved physical developments, and – most alarmingly – the allocation of plots within protected reserve, conservation and flood-prone areas.

Auditors also uncovered serious lapses in the allocation process itself, including a non-functional plot allocation committee, plots handed out without the required ministerial approval memo, suspicious survey documentation, and a troubling concentration of land ownership among a small number of individuals – a practice Chipungu said had been allowed to flourish because no minister had ever enforced legal limits on how many plots a single person could hold.

‘Although the law provides for setting of land allocation ceilings, no Minister has ever enforced the law to set limits on the number of land parcels to be allocated to individuals,’ Chipungu admitted.

‘This has encouraged land speculation where individuals obtain offers of leases and transfer them to others on a higher consideration.’

The audit also found the ministry had failed to maintain any centralised database for ground rent and development charge payments, leaving substantial revenue owed to government untracked and uncollected.

Announcing a sweeping set of corrective measures, Chipungu confirmed the ministry would consolidate its outdated cadastral maps, overhaul its record-management systems, and revive the previously defunct plot allocation committee to restore transparency and accountability to the process.

He issued a stark warning to lessees sitting on undeveloped plots, confirming that anyone who had failed to develop land within 24 months of receiving their lease would be given just 60 days to remedy the breach, under Section 34 of the Land Act, or face termination of their agreement and withdrawal of the plot.

Illegal structures built without approval, meanwhile, face demolition under the Physical Planning Act, while ministry staff found to have improperly created plots in protected areas will face sanctions.

Crucially, Chipungu revealed that his original 14-day ultimatum – issued before the audit even began – had been largely ignored, with land occupants failing to come forward as instructed.

Auditors also faced significant resistance during the process itself, with landowners repeatedly reluctant to cooperate or produce documentation proving legitimate ownership.

‘This time around, as we work to improve the land administration processes in the Ministry, I would like to reiterate the call to the public to ensure that they come forward with their legitimate land ownership documents and adhere to the conditions of their lease agreements,’ Chipungu said.

In one of the briefing’s most explosive revelations, Chipungu disclosed that fraudsters had produced a fake title deed for Plot No. 19/46 – land legitimately allocated to the High Court Commercial Division back in 2011, for which the court had already paid K4.8 million in development charges and received official confirmation of ownership from the ministry as recently as 2020.

Chipungu said the ministry believed the fraudulent document may have been produced through what he described as a “parallel structure” operating entirely outside the ministry’s official processes – and issued a firm warning that no such fraudulent documents would ever be recognised or regularised.

‘The Ministry has taken a strong position against the production and use of fraudulent land documents and will not regularise or recognize any such documents,’ he said.

Closing his address, Chipungu vowed the ministry would show zero tolerance for malpractice in land administration going forward, pledging to work alongside all relevant government departments and agencies to ensure Malawi’s land laws are properly enforced.

The findings are likely to trigger significant political fallout, coming just days after Chipungu separately warned that several sitting Cabinet ministers and other politically exposed individuals were among those suspected of dubiously acquiring plots in the very areas covered by the audit – with the minister previously vowing to publish a full list of implicated “big people” in the near future.

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