MAMBO YA PRINTING PRESS

Helena Shoni na Jocob Mapua ni wanafunzi wa mwaka wa pili katika Chuo cha Ufundi Peramiho (PVTC) wanaosomea fani uchapishaji (Printing Press) wakifanya mazoezi kwa vitendo kwa kupanga kurasa za vitabu vya risiti (Cash sale books) vya wateja mbalimbali. (Picha na Friday Simbaya)

LAND RIGHTS

By Friday Simbaya, Songea

Tanzania Land Alliance (TALA) Coordinator, Joseph Chiombola

A lawyer with the Land Rights Research and Resources Institute (HAKIARDHI), Godfery Massay 

The government has being advice to implement village lands measure and good land use plan efficiently, in order to decrease the practice of land grabbing of village lands, evictions, alienations, double allocations, trespassing, corruption in the country.

The statement was made by the Tanzania Land Alliance (TALA) Coordinator, Joseph Chiombola during the weekend at Peramiho in Songea District, Ruvuma Region during a two-day training workshop on land rights and gender to at least 50 Gender and Development Coordinators (GAD), Animators and Extension Officers of Caritas in the Southern Highlands Zone.

The training was organized and coordinated by the six diocese of the Southern Highlands Zone of Caritas, including Songea (host), Mbeya, Mbinga, Iringa, Njombe and Tunduru-Masasi, aimed at building capacity to GADs, animators and extension officers on the issues of land rights, Land Act (LA) No. 4 and Village Land Act (VLA) of No.5 of 1999.

According to TALA Coordinator Chiombola, the government should put in practice the village land measurement, land use plan, empowering of small scale producers economically, and as while as building capacity to citizens in the areas of investment in order reduce conflicts between them and investors.

He pointed that a lot of land disputes and disagreement in the country are caused by non implementation the good land use plan of village lands by the government and also lack of knowledge of people concerning land rights and land acts on the other side.

“Land divides into three categories namely general land, village land and reserved land,” Chiombola added.

In another development a lawyer with the Land Rights Research and Resources Institute (HAKIARDHI), Godfery Massay, said that despite the changes in the land order that have at least improved the land rights situation for women as a group, the fundamental principles governing land rights in Tanzania are still in favor of the more powerful and well connected groups in society most likely, elites, local and foreign investors and their counterparts.

He noted that women can only sustain the little scores they secured in the legal provisions by joining hands with other marginalized groups to advocate for a more socially just and equitable land tenure system, that gives them power and space to participate in practical decisions from a family to national level.

Tanzania Land Alliance (TALA) is an alliance of seven (7) civil organizations with stronghold in advocacy for land rights for small producers in Tanzania.

Its members include Land Rights Resource and Resources Institute (LARRRI/ HAKIARDHI)Legal and Human Rights Center (LHRC), Pastoralists Indigenous NGOs Forum (PINGO), Lawyers Environmental Action Team (LEAT), Women’s Legal Aid Center (WLAC), Ujamaa Community Resource Team (U-CRT) and Mtandao wa Vikundi vya Wakulima Tanzania (MVIWATA).