No foreigner should be allowed own land in Malawi
President Lazarus Chakwera’s directive for “Minister of Lands to review all the land laws to address the flaws in the legislation and those laws must be ready for amendment at the next seating of parliament” has opened a window of opportunity for the country to amend bad clauses.
Malawians have complained for some time now about foreign nationals buying land in both urban and rural areas. And there are fears, and justifiably so, that many Malawians will be landless if the current land laws are left unattended.
Parliament amended 10 related land laws in 2016. Many Malawians, especially in the north, expressed reservations about the amended laws and rejected them, citing serious flaws. Some MPs have expressed similar concerns in parliament, but have done nothing to change the status quo. Shame!
These land laws, which have been developed with the support of European Union, favour foreign investors and some poor Malawians are losing land. The Land Act, the Customary Land Act and the Land Acquisition Act have increased the risk of land grabs. The laws were amended to enable government to easily allocate land to foreign investors for commercial agriculture under the New Alliance which the DPP government signed with some western countries. The Greenbelt Initiative is one such strategy.
Malawi Mangoes, a company that is 100% foreign-owned, acquired more than 200 hectares of land in Salima to grow mangoes and bananas for exports. Government should not have allocated huge tracks of land to Malawi Mangoes. The poor villagers lost their land to the foreign company. And there is also a foreigner who is rumoured to have bought 780 hectares of land. What is this all land for?
As the Minister of Lands reviews the laws, one of the issues to look into is to limit the amount of land to allocate to foreign investors and the period of lease. Government should not be allocating huge tracks of land to the investors, bearing in mind that Malawi is a small country and there is land pressure as the population is growing at an alarming rate. The period of the lease should also be shortened to 20-30 years. It is unfair to allocate large tracks of land to foreign investors for a period of 50 years when Malawians are landless.
Land laws should not be favouring foreign investors at the expense of Malawians. Malawians must come first. If government had a good policy of empowering its citizens we would be doing many things on our own without depending on foreign investors many of whom are exploiting workers and natural resources.
Sections 37 and 38 of the Land Act should be scrapped. No foreigner should be allowed to buy or own land. Foreigners are buying land because the law allows them. This is a serious flaw. It is unfortunate that some MPs have complained about foreigners buying land when they have power to change the law. No Malawian can go to China, India, Pakistan, Lebanon or Rwanda to buy land. Why should we allow them here? Land is for indigenous Malawians. Full stop! And we should not please anyone on this.
Under both Customary Land Act and Land Act, unused land is classified as public land. This will encourage land grabbing and corruption as a minister can allocate this land to anyone since it’s under government. It should be emphasised that a district like Mzimba the unused land which comprises forests has owners. It is not free land as some people would want to interpret. The trees are preserved to avoid environmental degradation.
One can only hope that the Minister of Lands and his team will soon hold a series of meetings throughout the country to solicit views from Malawians about the areas in the land laws they wish to be amended.
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keep the country poor as village,no foreigners will spend and tambla to buy the land, just check the neigbhor countries, their are rush to develop, but here we are disscussing how slow down the steps. i think the god will blessing the poor man
Chakwera is assured of my vote at next presidential election should the land reforms take effect. Foreigners are really having it good with land purchase, unlike indigenous Malawians (including, maybe a handful of the so-called of “other origins”
This is the way to go. How come people should but land anywhere and anyhow? Foreigners do get land on lease basis say 5 yrs, 20 yrs etc. We cannot keep on selling our own land the pace we are going. In fact what everyone should know that Malawi is landless. We have the highest population density in Africa and yet we opt to sell our land as if we going somewhere! We need to do something and the time is now, it’s us and it’s here in Malawi.
Can a foreigner ever carry the land they owe, away from Malawi? It looks to me that Malawians want to remain one of the poorest peoples and countries in the world.
Are u not aware of the state of African countries prior to independence…they can carry it as their own…it’s not the 14centuary anymore we live in the age of information and we can’t keep falling for the same old tricks Malawians..countries like Ghana,Gambia emphasize on attracting investors with good intent specifically blacks in the diaspora who share and understand the Africans plight..
Indeed they wanr too
Foreigners who buy land benefits the seller who invests elsewhere. A Foreigner who owns lands invests in that land by building structures (employment) or developing the land in Agriculture. Most countries allow Foreigner ownership as it creates investment new money into the country. When the foreigner decides to sell they are charged extra taxes Capital Gains taxes which further assists Government. Problem is Malawi does not have adequate tax laws for sale of property and land.
Yes amwenye kuno sikwao adabwerera kudzamanga njanji ngati indetured labourers.Look at the suffering of african slaves in India and compare with these guys who came here as labourers.Do not give them any chance to own land.
I watched one documentary of African descendants in India that were taken there by force…the government put these people in the jungles to fend for themselves,they are intentionally restricted from getting any news outside the areas they live and know so little about their motherland…in the 80,s when India wanted to have a hand in sporting scene but saw that their people were not physically up for the challenges they went into these jungles to recruit children in all kinds of sports with the sole aim of exploiting them and when the blacks started to be more informed because of this exposure the program was stoped..these blacks are called siddis and story is a sad one.
I agree with this
Land should be provided to bonafide foreigners with proper legit investments plans which will create jobs for the locals and contribute positively to the economy. This isn’t rocket science to justify. In the same news today, i’ve read that some investors will commnece selling of Agricultural produce from local green house investments and partnerships close to KIA and are employing hundrends of surrounding citizens. I wouldn’t mind providing more land to these investors and they will put or utilise the land productively. Rather than giving such land to people who will construct substandard structures for their businesses and enslave the local to labour for peanuts. See, the problem is two fold here, the staff at lands and the cash rich buyers who have colluded and corruptly sold/baught land dubiously. The sellers and buyers should be audited and i challenge you it’s very easy to follow such cases and prosecute. The longer this matter takes to conclude, and other cases currently in courts the higher the likelihood of political unwillingness and ultimately the lip service paid to draining the swamp or clearing the rubble. This will burn the political capital of the Tonse and come the next budget session, troubles will erupt, come 2025 we all know what will happen! No need to pre empt. An audit into the sale of prime land should be instituted and the plots still idle should be revoked and allocated to serious investors. Capital Hill and other Govt entities should desist from utilising such investors for corrupt practices. Just work hard and devise appropriate reward systems to take care of good performance. See, this comes back to reforms. Embrace the reforms and corruption in many forms will be automatically checked.
The best solution
Is let us all leave
Before going we should destroy all the buildings and machinery
And see what this so called patriots can do
Let them start from zero
As all the buildings as you say that was built with corruption lets destroy all this
Leave them empty handed
They will build 8 storey buildings
By all means destroy the buildings and machinery. You don’t have to hold Malawi to ransom or the balls. It will be interesting to know where you will head to next considering that it probably is only Malawi, through corrupt leaders, which has been guilible and stupid enough to pawn it’s land for pitance.
Mind you those who put land to efficient use need not feret. It’s those who dupe locals to buy hectares upon hectares of land for God knows what that are not welcome.
Many countries give opportunites
Look at zambia where has it gone
All these economies have lifted
We are still on same
Coz after we eat zimbe and spit on the road we blame it on foreigners
Instead of cleaning it urself
The patel brothers were chased from uganda during idi amin
They headed yo uk
And become richer more then what they had in uganda
Amongst those Indians deported from Uganda were 20 different Patel families ( not related) who were millionaires in pounds in 1970’s ,arrived in UK,penniless,destitute,come 1990’s the same 20 families through hard work and business flair became millionaires again .beat that,Osati za nsanje.
Go to the UK then…the world is changing and the African is changing with it…weather u like it or not…
Go there too, we don’t need u here. U enslave Africans in India so Africans are not blind anymore .
Time is fast approaching , mob justice will be perpetrated on u Indians and your fellow Pakistanis
Wherever,I think they will be successful.
In Uganda President Museveni (at the helm ,for years,thank the lord for our democracy) recalled the Indians back,some went back,others sent their relatives from India,properties and farms were returned to them,15000 to 20000 population now(80000 in 1970’s) nevertheless contribute 62% of tax collected by authorities,so ma amwenye awa and Uganda not exactly in doldrums.
Agreed best solution to the problem.
Let the government allow ordinally malawians to take the land law into their hands. They should decide on who to own land otherwise I support the idea of hanging all indians by their balls. Tikuduleni machende mwina mumva kuti kuno sikogula malo. Go gujarati and buy land there not here in malawi
Okay black man
Yah leave black man in his God given land and go back to India my friend, we are getting tired of u and one day revenge will be directed upon you by abusing our forefather as slaves.
We are not happy with past history u did to our forefather, so now u came back with tricks of being investors whole steal our land, watch the space.
Channel your aggression in a different way,maybe you might be able to emulate their success,I think you have to go to anger management classes.jeez you seem to be a very angry person.
The problem with some of you Malawians is that you think you are clever but you not, look at the African countries surrounding you they are all growing economies and we in malawi are the 3rd poorest country in the world . Countries like Zambia Mozambique Rwanda are fastest growing economies in africa because they encourage foreign investment into the country unlike malawi.
And yet my brother Mr. Peter Muthalika prides himself to have left government in good status/shape with all these land grabs done by him and and Atupele Muluzi. Shame on them people are not wrong to say “MALAWI DZUKA”
Osamachimvera chitsilu chimene chija
Now what is the cost benefit of giving land to foreigners. What have we benefited as Malawians. When giving land to foreigners for investment give them as gifts so that you can take them back should they misbehave or the government wants to redistribute to another investor or Malawians want their land back.
Heading to another Zimbabwe.
To me the approach is that foreigners who possess land should return it. If they refuse force shouldbe used. There is no freedom without land. Take corrective action then apply preventive measures. Malo atha kale kutenga ndiye aziti asatengenso. Abweze iwo adatenga
the we will remain wosauka for the rest of our lives
On top of that amafunanso malo oti kulibe minga, chitedze ndi miyala kuti asavutike popanga development
Guys don’t fool ourselves olo atayika lamulo limeneli most of these foreigners azingopeza mzawo wa chimalawi or partner then register the company or aquire land mudzina lammalawiyo that’s what happens. Ofunikanso immigration asamangopeleka ma citizenship pazikhala tests to know how if these have integrated with the community. Nevertheless I’m happy Malawi ikusintha pang’ono pang’ono.
I understand the article of Aford Man. The other problem is our own sisters who tend to be loved and yet the guy wants to obtain passport or shelter . If you have loved the girl why dont you not take her to where ever you are planning to go than staying here and finally you and the silly sister grab lands for agogo anu.Many Zimbabweans are here in malawi to stay. They married here and when you ask their home of originality they say Chiladzulu after Zomba as we go Liwande. You can see it yourself.
What these Indians do now they are busy constructing two story building to deceive the leadership of the Country. Go to Limbe in Blantyre its a total shame. Tell them to construct eight to ten story buildings and if they cannot manage give them time flame to pack and go to their Countries of their choice which is going to talk all that rubbish.
Even acquiring land is dubious. Follow these Indians and see for yourself. This culture full of thieves.Whatever they donate to the Government is baseless anthu akuba awa.Dont allow lawyers to exchange it with money.These are also people who loves money so much and work hand in hand exchanging of land. See Area 43,47,15 etc you will be shocked. DZIKO LA MALAWI LOPANGITSA CHISONI KWAMBIRI on land issue.MHC,CITY,LANDS HUGE THIEVES.
So what’s stopping you from putting up a eight story building ?
You are telling me that the Indians cannot put on the structure named?
I am sure they can build such structures,in time they will,right now it’s about supply and demand,our corporate world is to small to absorb such high towers,in world over people also live in such buildings,but in Malawi prefer to live differently.
Jealousy
Correction: Should start ”No foreigner should BE allowed to own land in Malawi.”
Lowani has a point. Many Malawians do not know that these land laws were spondored by western countries. Google the article, NEW ALLIANCE, NEW RISK OF LAND GRABS by Action Aid you will know the truth about these land laws.
Malawians let us wake up and resist these land laws. President Chakwera should be congratulated for ordering the rewiew of the laws. They are not good at all.
No foreigner should me allowed to own land in Malawi can only apply if we have a clear definition of what a Malawian is. For Malawi’s immigration dept has corruptly granted Malawi Citizenship to thousands of Indians, Pakistanis, Nigerians, Rwandans, Bangladeshis, Lebanese, and many others.
Malawians should be defined as being born in Malawi period!!! Lets be mature and act within international law. Cancel every single business residence permit and citizenship to non qualifying foreigners. Place the Dept of Immigration under Office of the President or Vice President. Deport all those holding Malawian Citizenship who do not qualify for Citizenship under Malawi laws
Foreigners born in malawi dont get malawi citizenship if born in malawi
For that either parent has to be malawian. For which they have to pay citizenship fee which is around 6000 yo 10 000 dollar plus fanta
Excludes safety precautions
All at your own risk
After becoming citizen of malawi if u get robbed than thats ur problem not government
If roads are not well or have no lanes accept it
If u hav a tap and no water ur problem
That’s in fact the law. But why do foreigners born in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria etc have Malawi Passports. They buy the citizenship.
Thats what am saying citizenship is sold
Why not give passports to those who born in malawi
Can speak fluent chichewa
Better than some malawians out of malawi
Who sells them?
Who sells them? Are you for real? Why is Uladi Mussa going to prison?
It is obvious that the immigration officials and Ministers are selling Citizenships to foreigners. Do not waste people’s time making idiotic comments. Only those who qualify for Citizenship are those
per laws of Malawi not those not qualifying but speaking Chichewa. Citizenship is the scared right of Malawians.
Precisely,so get angry with those”selling” the passports.
Not angry. The sellers must be arrested and charged with criminal offences just as those who buy the citizenship or passports must be arrested and charged. Malawi is a small country and our land and resources must be for us Malawians not criminal foreigners. We must root our like weeds the corrupt officials, politicians and the corrupt foreigners and punish them. Malawian land has to belong to Malawians not the foreigners. Kamuzu left the land in Capital City free of foreigners but today these foreigners own everything we see. This cannot happen in India or anywhere else. Only in Malawi.
This is the best piece of legislation so far. Issues to do with land are very emotive. Am happy the president has realised this and has thus acted upon it. In the same vein, we also need redress in large swathes of land owned by tea growers in the southern region. Malawi and Malawians first. Period
Let land processes be reviewed from 1994 and if they are are any shortcuts they should be fined and in severe cases where there is gross negligence land should be given back and then valued for resale. But here the catch… I have seen countless adverts in the papers about plots or land being sold and in all these ads the average price for the developed plots in no less than 30 million and land is no less than 5million. So my question is Lilongwes urban population which should be over a million what’s the percentage of a black person buying a developed land when his monthly wage should be no more than 50-100k?or buying just the land and then don’t have the capacity to develop and therefore selling the land to a foreigner who has the financial capability to buy developed land or ability to develop land. This has always been the cycle for a while.. Black man has land given to him… Black man does not have money to build or is desperate for money therefore he sells it at a higher price to a non black because another black man can’t afford that higher price…. The non black now has a shining structure that the same black man envys Then later on that same black man complains that I have no land.
Zoon and Mr. Untruth, wait for 20 years, Malawi will be Muslim majority and a Pakistani bearded Mullah will rule you, lowlifes. You allowed them to convert blacks to Islam, the fastest growing cult. Why not ban all non Christian religions and non blacks from living in Malawi?
I think your brain is full of water so plz drain it, we are not talking about Muslims here but land issue my friend .
Stop commenting if u have nothing to say than making empty noise u so called Hameed.
Foreigners should NOT BE ALLOWED to own land in Malawi – PERIOD!
All the other categories are irrelevant. Let’s review our laws and make this crisp clear. Malawians can not buy land in these other countries just like their citizens are doing in our country!
A Malawian can own land in India if he wants if he is willing to pay the price. Land is very highly priced in India.
And not on a silver platter as Indians own land in Malawi. So in simple terms, a Malawian national can not easily own land in India, yet we have made it so simple for them here!
U can own land in india
But u cant afford it thats the problem
Just becoz u can buy in india
Not our problem
This is a very serious issue where most of the land is in hands of very few.
I see the point but MR Lowani Mtonga you missed the point with you short-sitedness.
How can you mention the European Union 🇪🇺 deal agreed with the previous DPP government regarding the green belt initiative & then ask why you can’t buy land in countries that have have nothing to or are not located in the European Union.
I got your point but at the same time read into your thinking that is borderline racist.
We can’t brush everything racist but you have to be subjective on the matter like
1) what about foreign nationals who own land but were born in Malawi?
2) what about Malawi citizens who were born in another country?
3) what about people who have dual nationality? Which in fact is the case of most of the countries citizens you mentioned that have nothing to do with the European Union.
I’m sure they have a Malawian and the country they originated from passport.
Those issues are not straightforward.
I rest my case.
The point to be underlined in this article is that Land belongs to Malawians, full stop!. I have never heard of Malawian of Indian origin or Malawian of British origin. If you want to be a Malawian, be a Malawian, sitikukana. Our generation will protect our land and resources at all cost. Enough is enough, we don’t want people who hide in the name of investment and yet, we all know that 90% of their profits goes outside Malawi. When it comes to protecting our land and resources, yaah call us racists, to us those that advance racism are the ones hiding in the name of being Malawians yet they exploit the our resources. Please, leave us alone, we just want to protect what is ours.
In that case can you please define Malawian?
Who is Malawian?
Most of the people in Malawi have migrated from somewhere else going back to the 17th 18th & 19th century?
Who is Malawian please define it what category does one become Malawian or qualifies as being a Malawian?
The problem here is that malawi is the 3rd most poorest country in the world.lets not act like we are a super power like we always do. we need foreign investment without which we cannot survive and all we have to look is at Zimbabwe and see what happened. Certain percentage of land should be reserved for indegenious Malawians and a small percentage for foreign investment who will be paying taxes and employ indegenious Malawians. Look at Rwanda Botswana they are advertising on the tv for foreign investment. Land is available for foreign investment in those countries.
Sadly the massive land that is owned by foreigners in Malawi is not even for investment; thats where we need to put things in order
Land issues are always sensitive. If not handled with care we could face a mass migration of foreign investment to countries that are more conducive to real development. Since independence what real development has been achieved to in agriculture that is sustainable and by whom. When ownership is encouraged we will get deep rooted investors unless of course we can go it alone without any help!!
It is massively sensitive.
It’s a double edged sword ⚔️ you want to develop Malawi & create jobs but at the same time you don’t want to by chasing investors away.
I think the warning shots are being fired.
Free advise to all “Foreigners” who own property or land. Restructure , diversify, plan & Exit.
The tricky part is the mwenye who has Malawian passport and citizenship. Is he also a foreigner. That’s the thin line that needs to be addressed as well. The Chinese most of them we know they are just foreigners indeed and no way can they be citizens of Malawi already.
Let face facts. The writer should research adequate before rushing an article.
Wellcome idea. Very constructive Mr President, you have my vote
Learn a lesson from Zimbabwe
1 million jobs are going to come from where if chase all the investors, leave tea growers alone…
Begging
Land grabbing should come to an end, Lilongwe saga the burned lodge own 650 Hectares of land, just imagine .
On top of that the whole land is remaining idle while our poor brothers and sisters are denied opportunity to graze this land .
Foreigners shouldn’t own land in Malawi indeed, u can’t go to India or Pakistan being a black man there and own land never. Why giving them freedom here and punishing our brothers and sisters ? If they need land then let them partner a Amalawian who own land and do business with him/her but not these foreign nationals giving them deed.
Anyone who know a back person who owns half of a hector of land in india please tell us. These Inidans dissguising under the name Malawians ationelela heavy and we re being stupid. Since independence there has never been a policy by our fellow black leaders to enpower Blacks as they were disadvantaged during the colonal period because thas what colonialism is all about. Inidans being light skined were previlaged and allocated and in limbe and blacks were limited to Sigerege. This was done deliberately to create inequality by our gods, the britsh. We got the political independe(limited) but still we get advice from the same wicked nations that gve us slavery, christinity and colonialism and we espect to develop. One can cn easly see how sick our brains are: admiring whites to the level of god,giving privilges to foreigners at the expence of our people
The problem is who is an indegenious Malawian . Is it a black Malawian or what.the original inhabitants of Malawi were Bantu people and very few of them exist. some of the Asians we’re already here when lomwes and Yao’s fled war in northern Mozambique and decided to settle in Malawi. These Asians are more indegenious than some of the tribes who settled in Malawi coming from DRC SOUTH AFRICA MOZAMBIQUE ZAMBIA TANZANIA
The indigenous are black people , Africa was created for black people not u Mwenyes ,Middle East was created for u Mwenyes and your brothers Pakistans then Europe for whiteman.
So go back to Indian my friend
These so called Indians of Malawi origin in 1974were chased away from townships by Kamuzu and told that they could only conduct their business in the 3 cities Blantyre/Limbe Lilongwe and zomba .Look at the townships now . Zero development in 40 yrs . Some of the buildings are derelict . When the Indians moved from townships to cities they bought land from indegenious Malawians who made profit from selling land . After 40 years the Same indegenious Malawians are complaining that they don’t have land . Why did you sell the land to Indians then?
Man you can see how sick the brains of black people are,how they admire white skined people. How they love foreign religions with white god jesus.It shows you that they have selfhate for their own black people. Our leaders, since 94 have not deveoped any poicy to develp they own blacks.ukyenla kuti upikisane ndi m’india for a plot in town same price ndi the indegenous, how stupid and most likely the city assembly would prefer giving it to the indian there by producing atown full of indians and no blacks,how sick. Thing have not changed at our city council.Its all about ali ndi ndalama ndani yet ku India they will throw you away with ur money
Yes mwachitsanzo opposite ABC clinic malo onse aja anagulitsidwa kwa mwenye wa PACIF hotel even Blantyre anagulitsidwa so malo ambili koma city assembly palibe chomwe amachita, aunduna woona malo amangolandila ndalama kumangodya, koma kusangalatsa amwenye azima nga ma wear house aaaa sizoona, ANDUNA OWONA ZAMALO :Achitepo kanthu ngati mene anenera Apulezidenti
I am with you. However, you don’t have to be abusive about people religious beliefs bearing in mind that religion is personal and, try hard as you may, you disuade no one but alienate even your friends. Remember that while some people venerate a “white”Jesus, there are those who are pationately emotional about other non- black prophets. To some of us, that’s their belief.
There is a ray of hope now in that the ban on sales of land to foreigners may be a step in the right direction to stop what could have been a catastrophe.
Tank
I thought our brothers and sisters sold the land. You can’t turn around and start complaining now and you know it unless if ur a fucking racist
Seven odd years ago ,in Lilongwe,area 46,ministry of lands had allocated virtually all the plots to indigenous Malawians,did they build no,to raise quick capital,most of the plots were sold to people of whatever origin,a scenario replicated through out .there in no such a thing as land grab, the ministry responsible for lands allocates plots within,politicians,friends and families,cronies,who’s who at the time and these people in turn sell the plots to Indians and who else.so all the flak is being misdirected.people are barking on the wrong door.
Precisely.