GOVERNMENT has admitted that the newly installed Zambia Integrated Land Administration System (ZILAS) has not been functioning for the last three weeks because the system was deliberately shut down.
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Elijah Muchima, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources said Government had decided to shut down the new system and that social media reports that the system had crashed were not true. Mr Muchima explained that for the past three week there was a deliberate shut down of the system but did not give the reasons for shutting down the system. Last week, stakeholders in the land sector including property lawyers from different law firms protested the newly introduced ZILAS,
saying it had not been working since it was introduced over 3 weeks ago. The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources through Smart Zambia introduced the Zambia Lands
Administration System for all land transactions but the system had allegedly malfunctioned.
And over 300, 000 title deeds had so far been processed using the newly installed Zambia Integrated Land Administration System.
Minister of Lands and Natural Resources Elijah Muchima said the system recorded over one million accounts where 300 000 title deeds were processed.
He said 200, 000 records had issues to do with Invitation to Treat (ITT) adding that the other 500, 000 records required verification such as missing National Registration Card (NRC) and contact numbers.
Mr Muchima stated that on May 17th 2023, the Ministry moved from the old Zambia Integrated Land Management Information System (ZILMIS) to the new one to help address the many challenges surrounding the ministry’s operations.
Mr Muchima said yesterday at a press briefing where he observed that the old system was so porous such that issues to do with corruption were the order of the day.
“Members of the press, I must tell you that the old system was so porous that it was full of corruption. People used to log in and change title deeds anyhow and this caused a lot of confusion and land wrangles,” Mr Muchima said.\ He said corruption was at the center stage where a charge of K70 for a particular service was being manipulated to between K500 to K700, a situation he described as unfortunate.
Mr Muchima expressed optimism that the system would be controlled as efforts are being made by Smart Zambia to ensure a corrupt free operating system.
He said the system is accessible every day and will help reduce the time spent by people to receive their title deeds. – ZANIS.
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