Lusaka-based lawyer and legal commentator Dickson Jere has raised concerns over the state of historical land records at the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, warning that missing documents from so-called “Green Files” could make it increasingly difficult to resolve competing claims over land in Zambia.
In a post titled “The Green File,” Jere shared the case of a colleague who has been living on traditional land inherited from his late father since 1987.
According to Jere, the colleague’s late father was the longest-serving headman in the area and had passed the land on to his son, who has continued occupying it for decades.
The situation reportedly changed when an investor emerged claiming ownership of the same piece of land after purchasing it from a person who held a certificate of title over the property.
Jere said the seller had allegedly converted the traditional land into State land within a period of about three months before selling it at a substantial amount.
He further claimed that, according to the information available to his colleague, the person who obtained the title had never occupied the land or made any claim to it before the transaction.
The property, Jere said, is situated along the Great North Road, making it potentially valuable prime land.
Faced with the competing claims, Jere advised his colleague to check what is commonly referred to as the “Green File” at the Ministry of Lands.
According to Jere, these files traditionally served as an important source of the underlying documentation used to trace the history of land transactions.
He said such records could contain application letters, council minutes, deeds, consents, receipts from the Zambia Revenue Authority, copies of National Registration Cards and other documentation associated with the acquisition and transfer of land.
However, Jere said his colleague returned with a concerning finding.
“The green file only has a copy of the title and diagram,” he quoted his colleague as reporting.
Jere said he was surprised by the finding, arguing that the documents he considered important for tracing the history of the property were no longer contained in the file.
He subsequently raised a broader concern, saying that the situation was “not an isolated incident” and that Green Files no longer consistently contain the historical documentation he believes is necessary to properly trace land transactions.
Importantly, Jere’s post presents these as his observations and concerns; the post itself does not establish that documents were deliberately removed or “deleted” by any particular individual or institution.
The concern nevertheless raises an important question about the ability of land authorities and courts to reconstruct the history of disputed properties when underlying records are incomplete.
A Green File containing the original application and supporting documents can potentially help investigators establish who applied for the land, when the application was made, what documents were submitted and what approvals were obtained.
It can also provide a paper trail against which subsequent transactions can be examined.
This becomes particularly important when land changes hands several times.
As Jere pointed out, once property has been transferred from one person to another and subsequently acquired by an innocent third party, untangling the history of the property can become significantly more complicated.
The issue comes at a time when Zambia is already pursuing major reforms in the way land records are managed.
The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources introduced the Zambia Integrated Land Administration System (ZILAS) as part of efforts to modernise land administration and move services away from predominantly manual processes.
Government has said ZILAS provides online land services and includes features such as National Registration Card verification, electronic filing, transaction notifications and an audit trail showing system activity.
Government has also previously acknowledged that information inherited from the older land-management system was incomplete in some cases, with some fields such as NRC numbers, dates of birth, gender, telephone numbers and email addresses missing from older records.
The Ministry has consequently been pursuing data cleaning and other measures to improve the quality and completeness of land information.
The government’s wider land reforms also include the National Land Audit, which is intended to identify land ownership and usage patterns, detect and prevent encroachment and disputes, and promote greater transparency and accountability in land administration.
Government has further stated that integrating ZILAS with other institutions, including the National Registration Office and the Zambia Revenue Authority, should help create more reliable land information and improve the resolution of land disputes.
These reforms make the preservation of historical land information particularly important.
Digitising land administration is not only about allowing people to apply for services online. It is also about ensuring that the historical information behind a property remains available, traceable and protected.
For someone involved in a land dispute, a title document may show who is currently registered as the owner, but historical documents can help explain how that person came to acquire the property.
That distinction can become crucial where there are competing claims involving customary land, conversion to statutory tenure, allocation procedures or subsequent transfers.
Jere said he had referred his colleague to the Commissioner of Lands over the reported dispute.
He also questioned how land occupied by a person and their family for decades could allegedly be converted and transferred without the occupant’s consent, arguing that there must be an explanation for how the transaction occurred.
However, the specific circumstances of the case described by Jere have not been independently established in his post, and any determination of whether there was fraud, procedural irregularity or another legal issue would require examination of the relevant records and evidence by the competent authorities.
The larger issue raised by his account, however, goes beyond one piece of land.
What happens when the documents needed to reconstruct the history of a property are missing?
That is the question at the centre of the Green File debate.
As Zambia continues to digitise its land administration system, the preservation, verification and accessibility of historical land records could become just as important as the creation of new digital records.
For landowners, investors and people holding customary land, the lesson is equally significant: land ownership is not simply about possessing a piece of land or having a document that appears to prove ownership.
The history behind that ownership matters.
And as land values continue to rise, particularly in areas experiencing rapid development, the ability to establish a clear and reliable chain of ownership could become increasingly important in protecting citizens, investors and the integrity of Zambia’s land administration system.
Jere’s concerns therefore raise a wider question for the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources: Are Zambia’s historical Green Files complete enough to protect citizens when competing claims over land reach the authorities or the courts?
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With the country already investing in digital land administration, ensuring that important historical records are preserved, properly digitised and capable of being traced could be one of the most important steps in preventing future land disputes from becoming even more complicated.
