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The lack of understanding of the system is strikingly pervasive. In a full meeting of the
Chibombo Rural Council at Kabwe, councilors were unable to repeat the procedures governing
applications for titles. Often, they confused their powers over land with those of the Commissioner
of Lands. None of them knew that Trust and Reserve Lands, just like State Land, was vested in the
president. Nor were they aware of the existence of the circular.
Similarly, officers of Chongwe Rural Council east of Lusaka did not have a clear
understanding of the titling process in settlement schemes. They considered that they did not have the
authority to process applications for titles in resettlement schemes, although no applications for such
titles can be considered by the commissioner unless recommended by the council.
In a random interview of ten civil servants and ordinary citizens, nine thought a house could
be bought in the same way as a car, i.e., without the requirement for a deed. Of those nine, five
absolutely rejected the suggestion that the MOL played a role in property transfer at all. One of them
confessed to having already paid the full purchase price to a vendor for a house and land in Ngwerere
farming area even before the transaction was completed.
The Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) has discussed an awareness campaign
as an important component in its future assistance with the ministry. It is an important initiative, but
it is important that the work be approached not just as a one-way transfer of information. The ministry
and its staff need to engage in serious conversations with rural people about the advantages and
disadvantages of leasehold tenure and titling and be willing to modify its actions accordingly. But the
ministry has no capacity to do this alone. Villagers need to be presented with the advantages and
disadvantages of various customary tenures as well as statutory tenure and be granted choice to make
their best educated decisions. The University of Zambia's law school and other extension services
could play an important role in performing these functions.
VII. Survey standards and the 14-year lease
A further source of problems in the system of land administration concerns appropriate survey
standards and the 14-year lease. The Lands and Deeds Registration Act (CAP 287) in section 12
requires a diagram under the Survey Act (CAP 293) to be presented with any document relating to
land presented for registration. The Survey Regulations, 1971, define normal acceptable standards of
error in terms of maximum acceptable misclosure of a traverse, requiring different standards for
different types of land: a maximum of 1:12,000 for surveys to determine the position of township
control or reference points, 1:8,000 for surveys in townships, and 1:4,000 for all other cases,
including agricultural lands. These are relatively rigorous standards of accuracy and can be achieved
only by well-trained survey staff.
Due to a shortage of such staff, the ministry's inability to provide surveys to that standard
became the major bottleneck in the system of land delivery and titling. In 1973, the backlog of survey
work was estimated as twenty to thirty years surveying at present staff levels (Swedish University of
Agriculture 1976). To deal with this problem, the MOL has increasingly resorted to a 14-year lease,
for which it requires only a sketch plan instead of a Survey Act survey. The legal basis for this is not
clear, but the reasoning seems to be that a more limited tenure could make do with a lesser degree
of accuracy. The 14-year leases have been utilized in a wide range of cases: urban developments,