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

Chapter 1 - Introduction

1.1 Justification for the National Land Policy

The history of land tenure and administration in Swaziland - covered in greater detail in Appendix A - is a fundamental factor in the history of the country. The Swazis arrived within the area now constituting the Swazi state in the eighteenth century, and the early nineteenth century saw their possession of the whole of the current area. The turmoil which led to displacements of many communities throughout the region then placed the Swazis’ possession of their land under threat on numerous occasions. This regional turmoil continued throughout the nineteenth century, culminating in the Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902). During the middle and latter parts of that century, much of the land came into the possession of settlers in the form of concessions. In the early twentieth century, many of those concessions were converted into freehold. The remainder of the twentieth century has been largely spent in recovering land into the ownership of the Ngwenyama in Trust for the Swazi Nation. Now, almost three-quarters of the land area is held by this form of tenure.

Today, the economic, social and environmental pressures on Swaziland’s land resources are severe. It was for this reason that His Majesty instructed his government to formulate a land tenure policy in 1993. Pressures on the land resource include:

1. The Aids pandemic threatens Swaziland with serious social disruptions in the short term. In the land context, it is a matter of urgency that adequate support be put in place to ensure the property rights of the bereaved are protected.
2. The population has grown at a rate of about 2.6 percent per annum this century, and 2.7 percent from 1986-1997. This has resulted in a population of more than ten times that in 1904. As natural resources have been depleted since that time, the natural wealth remaining per capita is less than one-tenth that of a century ago. Our land resource is therefore much less plentiful for each of us than it was for our ancestors, yet our stewardship has not always responded adequately to these changes in circumstances. For example, although there have been periods of sustained economic growth, over recent years the rate of real economic growth - fundamentally dependent upon the land resource - has not kept pace with that of the population.
3. Around half of all Swazis, the vast majority on SNL, live in absolute poverty (1993 HDR, UNDP, 1995 CSO National Poverty Profile). For example, over a quarter of rural children less than five suffer from chronic malnutrition. Poverty can be seen as a lack of capacity to gain access to clearly defined, enforceable and transferable property rights. Enabling access to such rights in the land context is therefore one means of addressing poverty.
4. Despite Swaziland’s generally high rainfall levels, there are often severe water shortages, which are a constraint to the development of land to its highest and best use.
5. Although only around half of all SNL households own cattle, the dryland cattle stocking rate on SNL is amongst the highest in Africa. More than 50 percent of all rangeland - about one-quarter of Swaziland’s total area - is either severely or very severely eroded, much of it the land with the highest grazing potential. The rangelands’ carrying capacity has been reduced to about half the previous levels, yet they are still required to bear the same burden and the carrying capacity continues to decrease every year.
6. Commercialisation of production systems on SNL under customary administration is insignificant when compared with successes of other countries in the region in establishing viable smallholder activities on customary tenure.
7. Supplies of arable land are dwindling fast (only around 10 percent of Swaziland is arable, and much of that is under threat from inappropriate utilisation).
8. Increasingly, there are squatter encroachments onto freehold land, and threats to the freeholders. As freehold land produces most of Swaziland’s cash crops, which in turn produce much of Swaziland’s exports and provide the major base for manufacturing (the main export earner), any loss of security of tenure on freehold could prove devastating to the economy.
9. The populations of the urban areas of Mbabane, Manzini and the peri-urban areas around Manzini are expanding at a much faster rate than the general population.
10. Development projects and population pressures often require resettlement of elements of the population for the general benefit. Resettlement and compensation policies and procedures must be both efficient and equitable.

This policy is intended to address these pressures and the following issues, addressed in more detail in chapter two:

• Human Rights - Gender equity and protection of property rights.
• Cultural - Protection of traditional values; integration between cultural values and economic realities.
• Land Tenure - Tenure security, dual system of tenure, land allocation and access.
• Land Use and Management - Strengthening planning control and principles; land underutilisation; inappropriate land use; strengthening management of grazing areas.
• Land Markets - The land markets are not functioning properly - that is, for the benefit of the entire society
• Land Administration - Uncoordinated land administration.

The policy is part of an integrated government initiative, not a stand-alone policy, in accordance with the short-term objectives of ESRA and the long-term vision of the NDS. That is, it forms part of a coordinated public policy framework, requiring that the doubt and contention that has dogged land matters in the past be replaced by positiveness and certainty, thereby inspiring confidence and encouraging development towards the vision of the NDS and in particular the vision of this policy.

1.2 Policy Vision

The guiding vision for this land policy is:

TO MAXIMISE BENEFITS TO THE ENTIRE SOCIETY FROM LAND ON A SUSTAINABLE BASIS

The following are the objectives designed to achieve this vision:

1.3 Land Policy Objectives

1.3.1 To improve access to land and secure tenure

1.3.2 To encourage the rational and sustainable use of land

1.3.3. To improve productivity, income and living conditions and alleviate poverty

1.3.4 To reduce land-related conflicts

1.3.5 To develop an efficient and effective system of land administration

1.3.6 To encourage land ownership by Swazi citizens

1.4 Land Policy Principles

The following principles arise from these objectives. That there be:

1.4.1 Access to land for all citizens

Due to the abovementioned successes in returning much of the land to the nation, implementation of this principle is still practical in Swaziland. The level of landlessness is very low at present, but this principle needs to be stated in the face of ever-increasing pressures on the land resource and its administration. The principle recognises the fundamental role that land access, clearly defined property rights and secure tenure has to play in human development.

1.4.2 Integration of this National Land Policy with the vision and goals of the National Development Strategy

The National Development Strategy (NDS) is the long-term guide to Swaziland’s development. Therefore, a principle of this national land policy is to utilise the land resource to assist in achieving the human-development vision and related goals of the NDS.

1.4.3 Institutional coherence/alignment of land-related agencies

This deserves its status as a principle rather than simply a strategy because of its fundamental importance in achieving all the above objectives. That is, it is a fundamental principle of this policy that institutional coherence and efficiency is a necessary precondition for the achievement of all the above objectives.

1.4.4 A process of building upon Swazi culture and institutions

This principle recognises that, historically, lasting progress is built incrementally, one step at a time. Practices and institutions that encourage such growth are to be facilitated: that is, all existing use and management rights are to be recognised and modified if need be.

1.4.5 Community participation, accountability and transparency in land administration

This principle follows from the one above and the human development principles of the NDS. This policy principle is directed towards local communities taking their future more and more into their own hands, with the government being available to them to service their requirements. The principles of transparency and accountability are to apply to all levels of this process - from the communities themselves to the highest echelons of land administration.

1.4.6 Gender equity

Obstructions to the human development of any individual should not be imposed on the basis of gender or marital status. Land-related legal impediments to gender equity are to be removed. The growth towards gender equity in customary tenure is to be encouraged.

1.4.7 A process of enabling land and property markets to work

ESRA recognises the private sector as holding the key to economic growth. The effective operation of the private sector is dependent upon the establishment of clearly defined, enforceable and transferable property rights - including land-related property rights - by a legal framework, and their efficient administration through an institutional framework.

1.4.8 Optimal sustainable use of the land resource to facilitate food security

Enterprise development and natural resource management are the basic strategies towards improving food security. This policy recognises that, for many Swazis, land is the most important - and in some cases the only - means of implementing those strategies.

1.5 Policy context

This National Land Policy is being developed in parallel with a number of related initiatives. Amongst other initiatives, the policy development process has been informed through the consultative processes of the Economic Review Commission Report, the National Development Strategy (in particular, the report of the Agricultural, Land and Rural Development Sector), the Economic and Social Reform Agenda, the recent update of the National Physical Development Plan, the draft resettlement policy, the National Report to Habitat II, and the Swaziland Environmental Action Plan. A more complete list of the relevant current initiatives is annexed (Appendix B).

The Swaziland Environmental Action Plan, now approved by cabinet, contains many recommendations relevant to this policy. In volume two, the SEAP report itself consolidated the land-related recommendations of many of these initiatives in devising a hierarchy of action plans intended to structure a consistent approach to land and environmental management.

This National Land Policy has been developed from level one of that framework. That is, this National Land Policy is to provide the broad policy framework of directives to which all subsidiary policies are to conform. At each level down from the NDS, the policies become less general and more specifically use-oriented; more differentiated in their applications of policy principles, and more integrated as part of the National Development Strategy. That means, for example, that:

• The National Development Strategy provides the National Land Policy’s broad vision and policy and strategy framework; the (level one) National Land Policy has to operate within the framework of the NDS;
• Any Urban Land Policy (level two), will have to operate within the policy and strategy framework of the National Land Policy;
• Any Urban Residential Land Policy (level three), will have to operate within the policy and strategy framework of the Urban Land Policy.

The higher level policies provide the broader picture; at each lower level, the policies become more and more specific in their application of the policies.

Most of these subsidiary policies are yet to be formulated. Their respective statuses are outlined in Appendix C.