By Alinafe Kamphika
Senior State Advocate in the Ministry of Justice, Maxwell Dausi, has appealed to customary land tribunals to be much conversant with the 2016 Customary Land Act and other customary land regulations to ensure decisions on land disputes comply with the law.
Dausi, who represented the Solicitor General, who is also the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, said this in an interview with Malawi News Agency (Mana) at a one-day training of customary land tribunals and district land tribunal which took place at Youth Centre Hall in Neno District on Saturday.
“It is more effective for the customary land disputes to be settled right in their areas by the customary land tribunals.
The tribunals are more aware of the land history and boundaries.
“It also becomes convenient as witnesses reside within same areas. It is, therefore, easier and cost effective than taking the matters all the way to the High Court,” he added.
Neno District Land Registrar, Malekano Chambakata, hailed land tribunals orientation, saying this will help in reducing workloads in the council as it will assist and empower the traditional leaders and members of tribunals to effectively decide on land disputes within their area of jurisdiction.
“Neno District has a lot of land disputes from many areas. With the establishment of land tribunals, the district council will have specific issues to tackle, while customary land issues will be referred back to the tribunals,” he added.
On the other hand, Neno First Grade Magistrate, Margaret Khobili, urged the tribunals to avoid external influences when deciding on disputes.
Senior Chief Dambe hailed Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Lands for organising the training, and he described the orientation as empowering.
“The training was just a reminder, we have been doing this before, only that we lacked more knowledge on how to handle some issues such as documenting verdicts and providing written documents to the people involved in such cases.
“We have also learnt skills to resolve disputes while maintaining peace and order,” the Senior Chief added.
Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Lands trained tribunals in Dowa before Neno District.
