AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE Second Vice-President, Ambassador Seif Ali Iddi has said that increasing construction of houses on the three-acre plots is against the objective behind the distribution of plots to the poor shortly after the 1964 revolution.
Iddi said there has been inappropriate use of land allocated for petty farming to support poor people in villages as planned by the late Abeid Karume after the end of the sultanate British backed regime.
He urged residents not to construct houses on farming land. The Second Vice-President appealed to local leaders (Shehas and District) to ensure that the land planned for small scale farming to support poor families as intended by the late Karume, when he declared equality in landownership is respected.
In 2015, the government launched inspection and verification of land ownership in the country and warned people not to sale the three acres plots, because it was given to them only for farming.
Ministers Mr Mohammed Aboud Mohammed (State Minister) and Ms Salama Aboud Talib (Land, Water, Housing and Energy), have also on several occasions warned that the government will take punitive action against people who sell three-acres of land allocated for farming in rural areas.
During the colonial days (before revolution), large pieces of land in the islands was owned by rich ‘Indians, traditional rulers (Mwinyi Mkuu), and Arabs’, but after the 1964 Revolution, the first President of Zanzibar, the late Abeid Karume declared land as government property and distributed 3-acre plots to hundreds of residents in rural areas for farming.
