Impact of land tenure systems on land conflicts : Swaziland - a country case study

Land tenure problems have gained worldwide prominence in the past few years. The pressure of high population growth, the increases in resource degradation, specific food shortages and regional resource conflicts have brought the land issue into the public sphere. Swaziland is no exception to this trend. In order to utilise the land resource more efficiently (i.e., land use, land management and administration) and solve some long-standing land-related issues (e.g., chieftaincy disputes and other tenure arrangements standoffs such as the farm dwellers problem), this country has embarked on land policy formulation since 1996. There are two major categories of land tenure in Swaziland: Swazi nation land and title deed land or freehold tenure of land. This article attempts to relate land tenure arrangements in Swaziland to land conflicts and seeks to identify their possible causes. It is observed that the much-awaited land policy should identify and codify clear mechanisms to prevent such conflicts and / or resolve them if they occur. The following factors have been identified as potential sources of land conflicts: inequitable access to land and gender bias, overpopulation on Swazi nation land, land degradation, tenure insecurity, farm squatting and land scarcity, speculative trends in the land market, slow socio-cultural changes and lack of control due to non-existence of land rights.