The members of the National Assembly have approved a motion that asks the government to conduct an audit of all the land sales of banks and other government lands during the last 10 years to give an overview of what really happened in these transactions.

It was the member of the Seychellois Democratic Union (LDS) for the district of Glacis, Regina Esparon, who tabled this motion.

In his presentation on this motion, Honorable Esparon said that it is very important to bring clarity to the land transactions that have happened in the last few years and is asking for a sale for the last 10 years. But once the exercise is done, the government will be able to decide if it wants a credible record for a longer period of time.

As for the reasoning behind his motion, the Honorable Esparon says that for too long there have been a number of complaints and criticisms regarding the mismanagement or mismanagement that has occurred or allegedly occurred in land transactions.

He says that at the district level, when the MNAs meet the public, they receive a number of complaints and the district administration office reports a number of delays in the procedure where land is concerned and where corruption and favors have entered, which means that there are people who have been more than a piece of land and there is no transparency in allocation.

He says that this is not only in the land of the bank but also in other lands that the government has sold, including industrial land.

“It is clear today that there are people who have land in the bank but which is not yet developed, who paid less than 100 thousand rupees and are now reselling it for more than 3 million rupees. I am happy that the new land policy has given a time limit as a condition to develop your land after the allocation has been made, otherwise the land will be taken back from you,” Honorable Esparon said.

Honorable Esparon says that the lack of transparency in the allocation, sale and ownership of land has caused a lot of debate in the National Assembly and has also been discussed at length before the Truth, Reconciliation and National Unity Commission where many cases where people are seeking compensation have appeared before the land court as well surely there are many cases and complaints.

So when a sale is made, it will allow the government to know how much land there really is and where the land is.

“Nowadays there are around 1500 people who are hoping for a piece of land everywhere, they don’t really know where there is government land that is not yet developed and can build on it. In other places, the government also does not know how much land there is that is either freehold or leased and in which district the land is located. In the case of leased land, it is also not known if they are being used for the same reasons that they were given or if the terms of the lease have been broken. The people at the land and survey departmentIt has also been confirmed that there is a lot of mess that sometimes confuses them in their work and this is because there are a lot of scams that have happened and for which no one wants to take responsibility. go and this makes people who are hoping for a piece of land turn around and keep hoping.”

Honorable Esparon says that after such an exercise, everyone will know which land belongs to the government and which belongs to the private sector, as well as which pieces fall into the reserve.

He also pointed out that another problem is that people who are trying to identify a part of the country, the government today makes sure that the parts they see are not yet fixed and that means they need to wait for a long time and we are talking about the same. 2 to 3 years before this land is put north.

He says the reason for this is because there are not enough qualified surveyors to put the land in the north and this also causes a lot of delay in the allocation of land.

In addition to what Honorable Esparon has done, when such a sale is made, it will also allow the government to establish the actions that have taken place on dishonest transactions and will give the government the opportunity to update things, correct anomalies and remove frustration among the public. .

“In the transformation that the new government is undertaking, it is really necessary for him to know and put his resources in order to respond to the demands of the land. Since January 2012, the government has purchased 22 square meters of land from the private sector, sold 51 pieces of land either in the land bank or in other pieces of land that were registered under the government, allocated 789 pieces of land in the land bank , and sold 343 other pieces that were not necessarily land bank.

Between 2018 and 2019 there were 444 new applications and 286 applicants whose applications were matured, in 2020 there were 118 applications and 315 whose applications were matured. But does the government have the ability to give all these people a piece of land? Does the government know how much land there is so that it can balance demand with its land stock? The answer is no.

Honorable Esparon pointed out that such a sale will solve a number of problems and failures associated with the land of the government.

This motion has the support of all the members of the LDS majority party who have raised all the problems that the district representatives have encountered where the land is concerned, while for the members of the United Seychelles minority party there are those who say that this motion is just a promise that the LDS made to the public during the election campaign when they asked to trust them because they would go and reveal all the injustices that have been done to the land.

Honorable Johan Loze from the minority party said that he did not get an understanding because the members of the majority party need to come and talk about this issue in the Assembly because he expected that they would take action on this issue as soon as their party became the opposition .

He reminded the members of the Assembly that the bank allows a number of Seychellois to make incredible investments and developments for their families and this should be recognized.

The debate on this topic was intense and the leader of the opposition Sebastien Pillay said that Seychelles gave LDS mandate because they wanted such problems to be addressed and that there is no understanding because the same rhetoric on earth is continuing was brought to the Assembly and it was hoped that as a government they would take action to address this issue once and for all.

When it was time to vote, 21 members voted for, no one voted against and seven members did not vote.

Source: Seychelles Nation