News on Land

Agriculture Minister Anxious Masuka has said at least 260,000 people are on the waiting list to be allocated farms.Masuka was speaking during a field day in Kwekwe, before putting unproductive farmers on notice.The senior government official confirmed that at least 304 whites are occupying farms in the country.

“We have taken 99% of land from former white farmers and we have 304 white farmers occupying farming land. We have now given them tenure documents and offer letters,” he said.“On the other hand nearly 300,000 black farmers are occupying both A1 and A2 farms.

In Mwanza, Tanzania, Nairukoki Leyian-Naisinyai tells me that here, "Corporations come with papers from the government claiming that they have the right to our land." She points to the large corporations that have entered the lands of the Maasai people to mine rubies and tanzanite. The Maasai can neither assert their rights to the land nor benefit from the mining of these precious resources.

Maasai are being evicted from a Tanzanian wildlife paradise to make way for neocolonial land grabs by the Dubai royal family. The reason? The right to hunt unhindered for the next 30 years.

Indigenous Maasai, widely acknowledged as exceptional wildlife conservationists, are being dispossessed of the lands of their birth in order to hand some of the finest wildlife territories of Tanzania to wealthy foreign hunters. And the government is bending over backwards to make sure it happens.

• Expat demand for homes in Bali, Indonesia, is spiking.
• The spike is driven by the rise of remote work, a new second-home visa, and skyrocketing rents.
• "The last 18 months — I've never seen it been busier in Bali," said Nathan Ryan, the founder of Bali Realty.

Main photo: Pantai Berawa beach in Canggu, North Kuta in Bali, Indonesia 

Citizens of rural communities across the country who are fighting for their land rights are outraged at the government’s treatment of them, likening it to apartheid and colonialism.

Violence, intimidation, assassinations and dispossession are continuing in parts of the country as black South Africans struggle to defend their land rights against moves by the government, often in cahoots with traditional leaders and private companies.

Pakistan Railways has leased out around 4,687 acres of its land during the last four years with the aim to transform the department into profitable entity by generating more revenue.

The leased-out land was located in seven divisions including Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Rawalpindi Multan and Sukkar, an official of the Ministry of Railways told APP.