In this land news update from South Africa we focus on:
More than 30 Cambodian-Muslim families protested the construction of a road running through Kampong Chhnang province’s Chhong Kos village on Wednesday after they noticed a portion of an ancestral graveyard alongside the road was damaged.
The Cambodian-Muslim community also noticed the road was being built at a higher elevation, another reason they protested the construction, said Mat Sary, an imam (religious leader) in the community located in Kampong Chhnang town’s Khsam commune.
Minister of Lands Kezzie Msukwa says there is a need to clean up the ministry and dismantle corruption syndicates involved in dubious sale of land.
Msukwa said this during a meeting with Vice President Saulos Chilima on the required reforms in the Ministry.
According to Chilima, Msukwa admitted that there are ministry officials who are involved in illegal sale of land.
Malawi Sun Hotel owners Mohammed Irshad Ahmed and Suhaik Irshad Ahmed are facing possible arrest following investigations into allegation of land grab in Blantyre City implicated together with former president Peter Mutharika’s personal bodyguard Norman Chisale.
Ahmed is accused of acquiring land through dubious means in Blantyre allocated to the developer by Ministry of Lands which was never for sale but through Chisale bulldozed to buy the land. Anti Corurption Bureau (ACB) has been investigating the matter and could possibly lead to Ahmed arrest for corruption offences.
Zimbabwe gave Malawi's late former president Bingu wa Mutharika a $124,111 (about R2,1m) “gift” in 2007 through the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).
This is according to an exposé by Alex Magaisa, a law professor at the University of Kent on Zimbabwe’s controversial farm mechanisation programme. The programme's $200m debt is being borne by taxpayers.
A review by an anti-fraud taskforce has revealed massive corruption in the DRC involving employees of the UN and international NGOs. Lack of oversight on how aid to the DRC’s vulnerable populations is dispersed has allowed bribery to flourish in one of the world’s most mineral-rich and conflict-prone countries.
Koh Kong provincial authorities said they would not approve the sale and purchase of land in protected areas without proper paperwork.
They vowed to weed out land corruption following a July 3 Facebook post by Prime Minister Hun Sen calling for the return of land to locals living in protected areas.
In an announcement on Tuesday, officials said land transactions are taking place in protected areas around villages and communes, especially in Botum Sakor, Kiri Sakor and Thma Bang districts.
Main photo: Protesters call in Phnom Penh for government authorities to intervene in land-rights disputes, Jan. 13, 2020 (RFA).
Cambodia’s government is unable to resolve the country’s myriad land disputes because many of them involve senior officials, Minister of Interior Sar Kheng said in a rare acknowledgement Tuesday, as a rights group urged authorities to take action against all perpetrators of illegal land grabs equally.
The family also accused the Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led government of Lagos of acting outside of legal provisions by demolishing their properties.
The Elejigbo family of Lamgbasa community in Eti-Osa Local Government Area of Lagos has accused the state government of demolishing their property at Silverpoint Estate for the purpose of acquiring the land and selling to wealthy individuals.
The family also accused the Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led government of Lagos of acting outside of legal provisions by demolishing their properties.
Oknha Sorng Thorn, the owner of 5,000ha which covers a fourth of Koas Krala district in Battambang province, was taken in for questioning by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) on Saturday in regards to corruption allegations.
In a move that civil society organisation Adhoc does not believe to be related to Thorn’s case, Prime Minister Hun Sen issued a sub-decree ending Mao Sochan’s tenure as Koas Krala district governor.
