Land Tenure, Housing Rights and Gender

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a long way to go before supply adequately meets demand for housing and attendant socialinfrastructure. 2438.1 Inadequacy of housingThe housing policies implemented after independence indicate a gradual shift fromproviding complete (conventional) low-cost housing to aided self-help schemes andsquatter upgrading. Performance in squatter upgrading schemes fell below expectationsdue to inadequate funding as well as technical and community development problems.The consequence of this policy shift has been that a large majority of the housing stock isinformal, poorly serviced or not serviced at all. Access to amenities such as clean waterand proper sanitation, roads, drainage and street lighting are at a low level and in manyparts of the country have regressed. The development of infrastructure and communalservices received inadequate funding, and the subsequent work done was substandard,leading to quick deterioration of roads and drainage systems. Street lighting, whereprovided, suffered because of poor maintenance and a lack of proper back-up services.Although the government has committed itself to prioritising housing in national policies,most households are actually experiencing a decline in access to basic essential services.8.2 Absence of affordable financeThe absence of an adequate institutional framework to enable the poor to accessaffordable finance for house construction is a major failure. The Zambia NationalProvident Fund, the Zambia State Insurance Corporation and the ZNBS were set up toprovide pension fund services, insurance services and building finance respectively. Theconditions attached to ZNBS loans are prohibitive for the poor and the unemployed.It is possible to envision how these three bodies could have structured their operations toprovide low-level financing specifically targeting low-income applicants in need ofhousing finance. However, they have concentrated their incomes on building projects thatbenefited the elite sections of society rather than the poor. In the early 1980s the ZambiaState Insurance Corporation, the Zambia National Provident Fund and ZNBS becamemajor providers of housing and office accommodation in all the urban centres in Zambiawith some of the most prestigious housing and office projects in the country.One of the main objectives enunciated by the NHP is the creation of a mechanism tomobilise housing finance from the public and private sectors, and international agencies,and to develop mechanisms to assist vulnerable groups. The PHI created under theChiluba MMD government tried to develop low-cost housing. But due to the poor243 The NHP estimated that, taking into account all the homeless families and the need to replacesubstandard dwelling units, the backlog of housing in 1996 stood at approximately 846,000 units. To clearthe backlog over a 10-year period would require a building rate of about 110,000 dwelling units per annum(page 7). The census of population in 2000 gave an overall figure of 10.3 million inhabitants. Using anaverage household size of six persons gives approximately 1.7 million housing units in 2000. If the numberof informal units were 70 percent of the total this would mean that the number of units in this category in2000 had grown to about 1.2 million.110
economy and the escalating cost of building materials, the low-cost houses soon becameunaffordable for the low-income groups that they were intended to cater for.8.3 Access to landAccess to land in post-privatisation Zambia has become critical, particularly for manyformer miners and others who lost employment when the mines and parastatals wereprivatised. Many smaller companies and industries servicing the mines were affected bythe uncertainty that earlier surrounded the mines sale, with further job losses resulting. 244As a result, many of the retrenched workers sought to “go back to the land” in the periurbanareas surrounding the Copperbelt towns, with the consequence that forest reserveland, private and mine land has been invaded by squatters. Efforts are being made toresolve issues of illegal squatting in conjunction with the local authorities and majordevelopment NGOs, including Oxfam, WorldVision and Care International. Oxfam hasbeen particularly active in this area by assisting peri-urban communities to gain legaltenure to land that they occupy. In this respect, the organisation has provided funding forthe establishment of a Copperbelt Land Rights Centre, intended to provide a one-stopshop for land advocacy among low-income peri-urban communities.With the implementation of the policy by government to allocate 30 percent of all land tofemale applicants, it still remains to be seen how well the local authorities will perform inredressing the traditional gender imbalances in this area8.4 Security of tenure and evictionsThe issue of security of tenure is a crucial one in these circumstances. A number ofstudies have shown that this is a critical factor in ensuring the enjoyment of a right toadequate housing and improving productivity, particularly among small-scale farmingcommunities. 245 The CESCR recognises a variety of tenures including informalsettlement. All persons should possess a degree of security of tenure that guarantees theirprotection from forced eviction. 246 The 1995 Lands Act explicitly prohibits illegalsquatting and the Constitution offers no protection of a right to housing or basicsquatter’s rights.Three major actions against squatting in the recent past illustrate the Zambiangovernment’s implementation of the provisions of Section 9 of the Lands Act 1995. All244 The first offer received for the sale of the copper mines from the Kafue Consortium (Avmin of SouthAfrica, Phelps Dodge of USA, Noranda Mining of Canada and Commonwealth Development Corporationof UK) was rejected by government as unacceptable. The Consortium eventually pulled out of negotiationsand for a period the Zambian government had to continue supporting the mines while looking for otherbuyers. This period of uncertainty impacted negatively on the mines themselves as well as other industriesservicing the mines (see Kaunda, F. (2002) Selling the Family Silver: The Zambian Copper Mines Story.Interpak Books, KwaZulu-Natal.)245 Kenny, T. (2000). Zambia: Deregulation and the denial of human rights. Queen Elizabeth House,Oxford University.Hansungule, M. Feeney, P. & Palmer, R. (1998). Report on Land Tenure Insecurity on the ZambianCopperbelt. . OxfamGB, Zambia.Care International Zambia. (2000).Copperbelt Livelihood Improvement Project (CULP) Progress Report.246 Ibid.111
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FOREWORD TO SOUTHERN AFRICA LAW AND
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housing for poor people. Finally, l
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Law and Land Tenure ReviewSOUTHERN
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Figure 1.1 Map of Southern Africa
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Table 1.1 Social development indica
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Thirdly, the superficies solo cedit
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e dominated by rural land reform, e
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Table 4.2 Patterns of land distribu
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Women’s movementsMany women’s c
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Women are also often excluded in la
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oth cases is to provide an adequate
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9 Women’s rights to land and hous
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Some key points:Apart from Malawi,
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summed up in the Zimbabwe High Cour
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Widows’ inheritance rights are al
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Table 9.2 HIV/AIDS infection rates
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10 Racial and ethnic equalityIn cou
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is focused on empowering Southern A
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The next section, on land tenure, i
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Investment Act 385 21Land (Perpetua
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1 Introduction and Background1.1 Hi
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as elimination of subsidies and pri
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eligible to vote. The current parli
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Table 1.1 Jurisdiction of various c
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A District Commissioner (DC) is res
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Committees will be involved in all
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Page 120 and 121: undertaken to harmonise the two sys
Page 122 and 123: ReferencesAugustinus, C. and Bensch
Page 124 and 125: Mvunga, M.P. (1980). Land Law and P
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Page 128 and 129: Keller, B. Phiri, E. & Milimo, M. (
Page 130 and 131: Appendix I: International human rig
Page 132 and 133: The Convention on the Elimination o
Page 134 and 135: : 2000Optional Protocol toICCPR of
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Land Tenure, Housing Rights and Gender

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