THINKING ALOUD: Should non-performers be transferred to another workplace?

It was indeed a big surprise to read that all land officers in Morogoro region will be transferred to other regions.

In these modern competitive times, meritocracy should be the benchmark and there should be zero tolerance for non-performers. The Minister of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development is somehow rewarding his non-performing land officers by transferring them and this is outright egregious. How can this be accepted?

But first is this really non-performance or is there something more to it. We all know how common are land disputes not only in Morogoro region but also across the country.

The genesis of this land disputes is the double or at times triple allocation of the same land plot done by the land officers who are corrupt to the teeth.

And now the honorable Minister wants to encourage and spread this corruption cancer to other parts of the country.

For the last three years while the government is doing its best to weed out corruption the land officers have enjoyed impunity.

It is better to have no land officers than to have these so called non-performers, better start afresh and start training new human resource for this purpose. Where was the minister for all this three years? I understand that there is a serious gap in human resource requirement in the ministry. Again why is there a shortage, seems there is lack of strategic planning.

As I see it the main gist of this ministry is to resolve land disputes that were and are being created by the workers of the ministry. I think this important ministry has a much wider scope and mandate, which is important for the development agenda.

The ministry should be actively involved in alleviating housing poverty in Tanzania. It is estimated that the deficit in Tanzania urban centers is about 1.5 million housing units. The growing housing shortage is confirmed by overcrowding levels that are found in urban areas. On the understanding that an occupancy rate of more than two persons per room constitutes overcrowding, the percentage of families in overcrowded houses in urban centers in Tanzania is about 35 per cent.

Imagine the problems a young new graduate(s) are facing today, upon qualifying and getting a job, are there any options of affordable houses available. They end up renting a single room in slums at exorbitant rates.

Can the minister tell us what he has done to create affordable houses for Tanzanians? I would specifically like to see data rather than semantics, slogans and rhetoric’s. I would like to see a strategic plan with time bound results.

This political smokescreen of gathering people and trying to solve issues spontaneously in open air meetings is a gimmick but does not amount to responding to the goals that the ministry should accomplish.

The housing problem is almost left entirely to the private sector and there is very little done by the public sector. It is indeed high time the ministry gets its act together and tries to solve/address the housing problem that the urban population faces.

The process of acquiring a building plot and a building permit takes very long time and in most times it is discouraging. Similarly getting a title is costly and tiresome. Land title is necessary for mortgaging in order to get credit facilities for housing development.

There are no formal housing credit facilities for housing in the country and main actors in housing development have not been playing their roles as expected.

According to me the vision of the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development should be, “to have a planned development of the land, where it will be pleasant to live and work, where business can thrive and prosper and where the natural beauty of the country will be preserved for the enjoyment of generations to come”.

Can the minister honestly vouch that under him his ministry is doing something along the lines of this vision?

On the ministry web site there are more than 30 documents posted about policies, guidelines and various regulations.

Thus it is high time to focus on implementation of these documents and seriously think about needs of 10 years ahead and lay the foundation; short of this honorable minister it is highly likely that you will be replaced and exit without any legacy.

We have a history of land dispossession and contestation, which has resulted in various types of inequalities and a skewed distribution of land resources.

Land has been subject to conflict, conquest, expropriation and exploitation thus resulting in the many discrepancies that exist today.

This has greatly influenced the socio-economic and political positions of different groups of people.

This situation has resulted in numerous land conflicts, and the land question and past inequalities remain unresolved. With this scenario it is important to find the root cause of this so that appropriate treatment can be given.