By Lekereni Chinkhota

Salima, June 9, Mana: Ministry of Lands has emphasized the importance of working with local authorities in transforming trading centers, towns and cities to have modern infrastructures that are aligning with the Malawi 2063.

Speaking in Salima during an interface meeting with District Commissioners, Chief Executive Officers and secretaries of city and district councils, Minister of Lands, Deus Gumba, said his ministry wants districts, councils and trading centers to fall under physical development plans and controls.

“For quite some time we have been building without following physical plans. We want to be serious this time for us to align our developments with the Malawi 2063 by having proper structures across our cities and towns,” he said.

Gumba added that the ministry wants to make sure that villages have special models that will have modern improved structures.

“We will start with councils down to Area Development Committes (ADCs) and Village Development Committees (VDCs).

“Looking at 2063, as a country, we are optimistic that with proper physical planning of development and control, we should be able to get to the status of our neighboring countries like Kenya and Zimbabwe,” he explained.

To ensure progress, the ministry has already embarked on various activities such as recruitment of land officials and physical planners that have been deployed in all districts of the country to monitor activities.

Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Unity and Culture, Richard Hara, said it is a shared responsibility to transform villages and towns as councils act as a planning area for such transformation. 

“Land related laws have been enacted under the Ministry of Lands but when it comes to execution of these pieces of legislation, local government particularly district councils are identified as agents and have delegated functions from the main law that they are supposed to implement,” he said. 

Hara said it is unfortunate that Ministry of Lands was doing things on its own because the functions needed to be transferred to their ministry and councils so that they should look at the aspects of capacity and needed bodies to be recruited to implement them.

“Ministry of Lands has done a lot by devolving the functions and the Department of Human Resource Management and Development created the positions and functions. We are jointly working with the ministry to manage the recruitment of the people who can implement the pieces of the legislation,” he said.

Ministry of Lands will be working in conjunction with the Ministry of Local Government, Unity and Culture to strengthen the capacity of councils to facilitate all land related laws for easy sustenance.