House Of Chiefs Call For Traditional Leaders To Audit Customary Land To Determine Extent Of Illegally Allocated Land

The House of Chiefs has called on traditional leaders across the country to carry out audits in their chiefdoms to ascertain the extent to which headmen have sold land to wealthy foreigners.

House of Chiefs Chairperson Chief Nkambo is worried that these illegal acts by some headmen are carried out without the consent of their respective chiefs and thereby depriving poor Zambians of their customary land rights.

There have been reports of headmen selling land to non-Zambians and wealthy people at exorbitant prices, depriving the locals of their land rights while customary law permits the transfer of interests in residential land among subjects, but only with the consent of the chief

However, Chief Nkambo says in many cases, chiefs only discover about such illegalities after many years with the land in question already converted to other uses instead of subjects living on it.

Chief Nkambo has warned headmen in the habit of prioritizing money over the interests of subjects, to stop further wondering how people getting such land will attain title deeds while the chief is not aware of the transaction.