The draft National Land Policy

Contents | 1.0 Introduction | 2.0 Issues and Policy Statements | 3.0 Implementation - Legislative Measures | 4.0 Implementation - Institutional Measures | Appendices

APPENDIX D

GLOSSARY

Agro-Ecological Zoning

A framework to organize and evaluate land resource data, including selection of alternative land uses, determination of climatic and soil requirements of these uses, the inventory of climate and soils combined in agro-ecological units, and classification into land suitability classes for the selected land uses.

Allotment

A piece of land which has been defined and beaconed as an independent entity.

Commercial Land

Land which is used, or is to be used, for a commercial purpose - that is, for all forms of the purchase and sale of goods and services. "Commercial" has two different levels of meaning - the wider, embracing all land used for a commercial purpose, including residential development sites, retail and industrial land, and the narrower meaning - land used for office accommodation, at which level it is distinct from retail and industrial land.

In this policy, when there is any doubt the term has its wider meaning - in particular, including the development of land for residential purposes, but excluding land used, or to be used, for a dwelling. Foreign investors may therefore initiate a residential development, which is engaging in commerce, but all the end purchasers of the development, who are now using the land primarily for residential purposes and not for commercial purposes, are to be citizens of Swaziland.

Degradation

A measurable and long-lasting, often irreversible, decline in the productivity of the land.

Desertification

A process identified by:

1. declining biological production,
2. deterioration in the physical environment and
3. increased hazards for human settlements and life.

Development

The modification of the biosphere and the application of human, financial and living and non-living resources to satisfy human needs and improve the quality of human life. t Development always proceeds from a state of relative globality and lack of differentiation o a more clearly differentiated, structured and integrated situation.

Environment

The atmosphere, water in all its forms, land, soil and subsoil flora, fauna, energy sources, minerals, topographical formations with energy potential, geothermal resources, living resources, landscape resources and other elements and factors such as residues, garbage, waste and refuse, noise, living conditions in human settlements and man-made products.

Farm

An area of land used for, or in connection with, animal husbandry, forestry or agriculture, but does not include:

• Crown or Government land, or
• land vested in the Ngwenyama in trust for the Swazi Nation, or
• stands, lots or erven in urban areas.

Farm Dweller

A person who resides on a farm other than:

1. the owner thereof, or
2. a usufructuary or fiduciary; or
3. a lessee under a written agreement of lease; or
4. the holder of a registered servitude which gives the right of occupation; or
5. the manager or agent of a person mentioned in paragraph a, b, c, d or c; or
6. a member of a family or a guest of a person mentioned in paragraph a, h, c, d or e; or
7. a person who is in the whole time employment of an owner if it is a condition of his employment that the owner shall provide him or his family with residential accommodation.

Freehold

A limited set of property rights held in perpetuity over a defined area of land.

Improvement

Any cultivated soil, road, dam, furrow, plantation, crop, buildings, drainage, fencing, clearing or other works or structure by which the value of the land is increased.

Land

A delineable area of the earth's terrestrial surface, encompassing all attributes of the biosphere immediately above or below this surface, including those of:

• the near-surface climate
• the soil and terrain forms
• the surface hydrology (including shallow lakes, rivers, marshes and swamps)
• the near-surface sedimentary layers and associated groundwater reserve
• the plant and animal populations
• the human settlement pattern and physical results of past and present human activity (terracing, water storage or drainage structures, roads, buildings,, etc.).

Land Tenure

The mode by which land is held or owned, or the set of relationships among people concerning land or its product.

Market economy

A set of institutions created to facilitate the exchange of legally held property. Economic arrangements arise out of voluntary and free exchange of value between individuals and/or firms. Values associated with exchanges of goods and services are set by supply and demand as registered in an uncontrolled price system. Freedom of association for economic activity is guaranteed by law. It requires a legal and regulatory system that prevents monopoly and/or collusion through restraint of trade, price fixing, government charters and other barriers.

Nation

A community of persons not constituting a state but bound by common descent, language, history, etc.

Peri-urban

Areas outside formal urban boundaries and urban jurisdictions which are in a process of urbanisation and which therefore progressively assume many of the characteristics of urban areas.

Policy

A guiding principle or course of action adopted toward an objective or objectives.

Property

A bundle of rights and relationships which give rise to entitlements. It is not that which is owned.

Property Rights

A recognised interest in land or property vested in an individual or group and can apply separately to land or development on it. Rights may cover access, use, development and transfer.

Formal property rights: Rights embodied in universally obtainable, standardized instruments of exchange that are registered and governed by legal rules, and connected to the rest of the economy so as to anchor and support the whole range of transactions that make a market economy work.

Resettlement

Any change in settlement patterns. These can be of two main kinds:

• relocation: physical shifting, which could be of dwellings, fields or common grazing and other land, or of all simultaneously;
• reallocation: a social redefinition of the relationships which determine which person or group has access to or rights over land.

Residential Land

Land which is being used for housing, or which can be developed for housing without requiring resubdivision of any kind for single unit residential development. In all other cases, the land is to be considered commercial land for the purpose of this policy until such land is developed. Residential land is therefore land where the prime current or intended purpose of its use is the provision of shelter, not engagement in commerce.

Rural Land

All land not situated in a township, village or settlement.

Settlement

The relationship between a group of people and land which they use, and which usually involves relationships between people.

Speculation

To buy or sell property rights in the hope of deriving large capital gains but with the possibility of considerable loss.

State

A sovereign political power or community. Any territory or group of territories having its own law of nationality.

Sustainable Development

Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The primary objectives of sustainable development programmes are to eliminate poverty and famine, to improve levels of education and health, to encourage public participation in regional and national development and environmental management, and to reduce pressure on natural resources to sustainable levels.

Swazi Nation Land

Land held by the Ngwenyama in trust for the Swazi Nation. Either administered under customary tenure or leased.

Tenure

The method by which a property right is held. Tenure involves many relationships established among persons that determine their varying rights to control, occupy and use landed property.

Urban Land

Land situate in an area declared to be a municipality or town under the Urban Government Act No 8 of 1969.