13 GOVT LANDS SOLD ILLEGALLY

MBABANE - The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development sold 13 government lands illegally.

This is due to the fact that the sale is in alleged contravention of the Crown Lands Regulations of 2003, which stipulate that city and town councils/Boards must ‘advertise’ the availability of plots for individual sale. Apart from this sale, the ministry issued 13 land grants. It has been established that 20 more grants have been lodged for registration. It effectively means that there are 33 government assets that are to be granted to entities. It must be said that land is not granted to individuals in terms of the law.

This newspaper has it in authority that 13 lands were sold to individuals. Regarding this sale, there was no advertisement for the availability of the plots. This should have been done in terms of the legislation. The situation has forced Appolo Maphalala, the Minister for Housing and Urban Development, to issue a directive to the ministry’s executives on Friday at a meeting to stop selling any government land or house in violation of the law.

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Following the advertisement for the plots, it is stated in Schedule 9 (Standard Application Procedure) that the applicant shall return the forms to the relevant local authority (cities, councils and Boards) before the closing date as reflected in the ‘advertisement’. The date and time of receipt of the forms must be endorsed by the receiving officer, that is, estate clerks, town clerks, township assistant or delegated officer. The cities, town councils and Boards are expected to screen the applications after the advertisement and make recommendations to the Crown Lands Disposal Committee (CLDC), which is chaired by the principal secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

Dr Simon Zwane is the current PS in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. In turn, the CLDC forwards the applications with recommendations to the minister for approval.
The Times SUNDAY has learnt that the CLDC convened three meetings between April and June 2024, to deliberate on applications for plots. These meetings, which overlooked the advertisement component of the land disposal process, were held with Lavumisa Town Board, Pigg’s Peak Town Council and Nhlangano Town Council.

This newspaper has established that the meetings culminated in the issuance of 11 land agreements of sale after undisclosed individuals and entities paid the required 5 per cent deposit.
On the other hand, 20 crown grants were lodged for registration with the Deeds Office. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development issued 12 crown grants after some people had paid full payment of the plot prices. Section 5 (1) of the Crown Lands Disposal Regulations, 2003, reads: “Local Authority (LA) advertises the availability of plots, stating their location and calls for application stating the target group and time frame for submission of applications.” It has been established that this was never done in this case.

According to Section 5 (2), all applications are to be addressed to the relevant authority - cities, councils and Boards. The screening of the forms must take place after the advertisement, which the ministry has not been doing. With regard to government land, Schedule 4 of the Regulations states that there are 10 things which need to be known by the public. They are as follows -
The different forms of land disposal, that is, sale, grant and lease;

• The land transfer process;
• The rules of the different players in land related matters, both at local and national levels;
• The nullification of old applications;
• The new application procedure and regulations;
• The townships approval process;
• The purpose for town planning schemes;
• The functions and importance of development monitoring agencies;

The importance and the purpose of rate payments;  
It is also mentioned in the law regulating the sale of government land that the ‘media’ is an information dissemination method, with other methods being pamphlets, workshops, seminars and conferences, local authorities and community meetings.   Sources said it is only the media that has the power to disseminate information to a wider audience. Schedule reads 7: “all current vacant government plots (serviced) shall be disposed off in line with the current disposal procedure, that is, the purchase price shall be the market value discounted by 50 per cent.”
However, newly-serviced individual plots are disposed off in the following method -
Plots targeted for the medium and high-income levels shall be sold at full cost recovery;
Plots targeted for the low-income level shall be discounted at 50 per cent of the market value (there must be a criteria to determine whether the people qualify or not).
With regard to grants, the applications are sent directly to the local authority. The cities, town councils and Boards screen the basis of the grant regulations. They are also forwarded to the CLDC to recommend to the minister who has powers to reject. There are regulations for grants wherein no land should be offered to individuals.

Benefit

Land grants are only offered to non-profit making organisations that are of benefit to the community. It is stated in law that the organisations that were granted land are monitored to ensure they remain non-profit making. In case the organisation grows and generates profit, it shall be granted a lease. Organisations changing status to profit making shall be made to buy the property as if it was a new application. It is said that crown land acquired by grant shall never be assigned, ceded or sublet.

The Crown Lands Disposal Act (1911) recognises the Crown Lands Regulations (2003). In its second quarter performance report, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development refers to these pieces of legislations. The ministry states that the Act makes provision for the disposal of crown lands. It says crown lands refer to all land held in title by government. It also refers to the Crown Lands Disposal Regulations (2003), which it says they prescribe the manner by which crown lands are to be disposed. The ministry also issued three registered 99-year leases. It could not be ascertained who bought the land because local authorities did not advertise them. A questionnaire was sent to Dr Zwane, who did not respond to it despite reminders.

Respond

He had acknowledged receipt of the questionnaires and even promised to respond as requested. “We will send it through,” the PS had said. When he was given a reminder yesterday, he said: “I have really inconvenienced you greatly. My technical team had promised to give me the responses by yesterday (Friday).” The PS was advised to attempt to answer some questions off the cuff, but did not respond.

1.Why is government land being sold in contravention of Section 5 of the Crown Lands Disposal Regulations of 2003, which stipulates that the local authority (LA) shall advertise the availability of plots, stating their location and calls for application stating the target group and time frame of applications?  
2.How much did government collect from the sales of the plots around the country?
3.Kindly inform us of the sizes of each of the plots that your esteemed ministry through local authorities sold? How many virgin lands were sold and how many houses were also disposed off?
4.Honourable PS, kindly provide us with the list of the individuals or entities who bought the lands from government? How did they know that government was selling the lands?
5.How many residential lands were disposed off in contrast with the commercial plots?
6.Based on the fact that the local authorities did not advertise the availability of the plots; Can we rightly conclude that all of these above mentioned sales are illegal?

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