MASERU – THE Land Administration Authority (LAA) is reviewing all land files as it probes cases of several people being granted leases to one piece of land.
The LAA director general, ’Malichaba Lekhoaba, told thepost that the probe which started last Monday has so far been alarming.
Lekhoaba revealed that in the five days from Monday to Friday the investigation had unearthed 56 cases where two or more people have been granted a lease to one piece of land.
“So far we have checked, from Monday to Friday, 500 files and out of them 56 are of those that have been allocated to several people,” Lekhoaba said.
“Some of them are allocated to two people at the same time and others to three or more people.”
She said they are investigating if these duplications are a result of mistakes by LAA officials, corruption or people gaming the system.
She has brought the police and the army to help with the probe.
“We have two members from the Lesotho Defence Force, excluding the one that we already had, and we already have two police officers,” Lekhoaba said.
Lekhoaba said she intends to examine all files of registered plots countrywide “to see how many of them have been issued leases to more than one person and to find what could have contributed to that”.
She said what happens after the probe would be based on advice from the LAA’s legal department.
“Unfortunately, I cannot just decide whether to reverse the issuance of a lease or not. LAA cannot cancel the lease only courts of law.”
She said what makes the probe complicated is that the LAA only issues leases and does not allocate land.
“That is why we have engaged the police to find what could have happened in the allocation of plots,” she said.
Lekhoaba said “that there are thousands of files yet to be checked and we don’t know how many plots will be found to have been issued to many people”.
She said on average 10 plots are registered a day.
She called on the public to ensure their plots are registered, irrespective of whether they are in rural or urban areas or whether they are for residential, business or agricultural purposes.
Lekhoaba said even government-owned land is not registered “hence there are some people who have claimed such pieces of land”.
“If only land could be registered we will be able to stop corruption,” she said.
“It will also help stop allocating agricultural land for residential purposes as is now happening haphazardly,” she said.
Lekhoaba raised concerns that the lack of proper registration of plots makes prospective investors, both foreign and local, refrain from investing in land.
“Our target is to register every piece of land,” Lekhoaba said.
“Having a one-stop-shop for all land-related processes is a must if we want to curb corruption, registration mistakes and if we want to attract investment,” she said.
Land disputes are common in Lesotho with many leading to litigation or resulting in incidents of fatal violence.
Those that make it to the courts are mired in delays due to a huge backlog of cases.
Staff Reporter
