Africa-Press – Mozambique. The attorney’s office in the southern Mozambican city of Inhambane has warned that it intends to revoke the land use titles granted to people who have built houses or other structures in the immediate vicinity of Inhambane airport.
More than 900 households are living in this area, reports Monday’s issue of the independent daily “O Pais”. They all claim they purchased the right to build in this space, and many say they have an official land tile, known as a DUAT.
The city attorney’s office believes that if Inhambane Municipal Council really did grant these DUATs, it did so illegally. For all the land on the periphery of any Mozambican airport belongs to the publicly owned airports company, ADM, since building on this land could present a danger to aviation.
Revoking the land titles is therefore essential as a security measure, said Attorney Pomilio Xavier. He told “O Pais” that the Municipal Council has been asked to explain how it was possible, not only to grant land title to the households concerned, but to allow electricity and water connections to the houses built on the airport periphery.
Xavier pointed out that initially the Council granted a DUAT for the entire periphery to ADM. “So how can it now grant DUATs for the same land to third parties?”, he asked. The machinery was now being set into motion to revoke those DUATs.
“In terms of the law, the primary DUAT prevails over the secondary DUAT”, said Xavier. “We are carrying out a survey of these cases. Some law suits are under way resulting from land disputes in this area, and we are analysing each one of these. If we find that those DUATS were granted in violation of the law, we shall ask the Attorney-General to annul them”.
The regulatory body, the Mozambique Civil Aviation Institute (IACM) worked on this matter in March, and identified the 900 families living on land which should belong to ADM. 500 had built on areas that the IACM regarded as “critical”, and so should leave immediately.
The Mayor of Inhambane, Benedito Guimino, has said he will start the procedure to move 250 of these households from the vicinity of the airport to the Inhambane neighbourhood of Muele-3. But three months after the mayor made that promise, not a single household has been moved.
The IACM has warned that if the households are not moved, then the airport runway will have to be closed, ensuring that no planes will be able to fly to Inhambane.
