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4. In order to facilitate the operation of a market in leasehold rights, the requirements for government
consent to transactions, including subdivisions, should be eliminated, with the possible exception of
lease assignments to non-Zambians.
Already, these approvals are a formality, an occasion for collecting a consent fee
which hardly covers the cost of processing, and for collecting ground rents unpaid
over many years and the property transfer tax. Provision could be made instead that
proof of payment of ground taxes and a property transfer tax must be proved to the
Registrar before the transaction is registered. The issue of non-Zambian ownership of
resources arouses strong passions. It may be best to preserve the principle of control
through a consent requirement, even though that consent will be readily given to
attract investment. However, the 5-year limitation on leases to foreign companies on
Trust Land should be eliminated.
5. Development conditions should be eliminated from leases and reliance placed instead upon
economic disincentives for holding land idle, such as ground rents.
Zambia's experience with development conditions is little different from that of other
countries in Africa. They are not enforced systematically and are most often raised
as an issue by someone who hopes to displace the exiting holder. They create
insecurity, without achieving their objectives. Rather than worry about development
conditions, ground rents should be increased to economic levels to bring pressure to
bear for the development of the land in a profitable fashion.
6. If in some cases development conditions are still considered necessary, they should only require
a specific investment or construction in the short term, for instance five years. The development
condition should be considered met if notice of default is not given by the ministry or other relevant
authority such as a municipality within that period. Default should be punished by fines rather than
by retaking the land. Beyond that time, only a prohibition of abandonment should apply, and in that
case a retaking should be subject to compensation for the land and improvements.
A set of development conditions along these lines would be less harmful than the
present conditions.
7. Further increases in ground rents should be considered as the economic value of land becomes
clearer through the auction process. Penalties should be imposed for late payment of ground rents.
These rents can provide government with much-needed revenue and can in large
measure substitute for far less satisfactory means of ensuring that land will not be held
idle, including development conditions. It is not a good idea, as recommended in the
ODA report (1989), to increase the property transfer tax: this acts as a drag on the
land market.
8. The MOL, given its limited staff and facilities, should carefully consider the economic and financial
impacts of the allocation of its staff to particular tasks and to particular regions and tenure sectors.
The ministry, like many other Ministries of Lands in Africa, must cease to think in
terms of providing a uniform set of services nationally. It must begin to heed the