Assessment of the Lands Tribunal in Resolving State Land Conflicts in Zambia

Abstract

The objectives of this article are to: 1) investigate the different types of state land conflicts occurring in Zambia; and 2) establish whether or not the Lands Tribunal is efficient and effective in resolving state land conflicts. Methodologically, qualitative methods (interviews and questionnaires) supported by documents were used. These research methods were used to conclude that state land conflicts such as invasion of idle or undeveloped private or public land, illegal allocation of land by some politicians and some government officials, violent land acquisition by political cadres, boundary conflicts, multiple allocations of land, eviction by private landlords, and eviction by government agency are occurring with greater frequency in Zambia. However, the Lands Tribunal is unable to adequately resolve these land conflicts due to its centralised nature, limited capacity and lack of public awareness. It is recommend that, guided by research, the Zambian government should consider strengthening the Lands Tribunal by decentralising it to district level, and ensure ongoing capacity building (i.e. adequate funding, ongoing training programme, sufficient transport, and adequate human resource) and awareness.

Keywords: Zambia, Lusaka, state land conflict, Lands Tribunal