Article Index
1. Country Context
South Sudan is the newest states in the IGAD region that gained its independence from Sudan in 2011. It is a landlocked country bordered by is bordered by Sudan in the north, Ethiopia in the east, Kenya and Uganda in the south, the Democratic Republic of Congo in the southwest and the Central African Republic in the west. As of 2015, the total population in South Sudan was estimated at 12.3 million people. More than 90 percent of South Sudan's land is arable but only four percent of the land is cultivated. It is in agricultural land and has one of the largest populations of pastoralists in the world.
1.1 Background on South Sudan Land Governance
South Sudan is still haunted by the laws formulated before it‟s secession such as the Unregistered Land Law of 1970. In essence, that law provided that all land that is not registered shall be owned by the state/government. This law went against the interest of the south as all the rural land is not registered and so it would by that law be taken over by the state. Under the Transitional Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan 2011, the people of South Sudan own all the country‟s land and its usage is regulated by the government in accordance with the Constitution and Law. The applicable law in this case is the Land Act of 2009.
Constitution prescribes a three-category land tenure system divided in to public land, community land, and private land. Public land means all land owned, held or otherwise acquired by any level of government. This classification includes land owned by Bomas, Counties, States and federal government or administration and all land that is not otherwise designated as community or private. Hence there is no such thing as no-mans‟ land in South Sudan because land unclaimed by an individual or community belongs to the government by default.
Community land includes all lands traditionally and historically held or used by local communities or their members. This category could include communal grazing lands for animals, hunting grounds, or locations of traditional sacrifices and worship.
Private land includes registered land held by any person under leasehold tenure, investment land acquired under lease from the government, and any other land designated as private land in accordance with the law. The assumption implicit in this framework is that all investment land (Land for businesses) is acquired from the government through the leasehold tenure.
Sudan‟s transitional constitution gave the People the right to own the land by one hand and took that right away by the other. It explains that land belongs to the people yet one can only own a lease from the government. The reality is that the government owns the land and the citizens hold leasehold titles over their plots. This is because most of the land in South Sudan is unregistered yet the law provides that all unregistered land vests in the government thus leaving the citizens with no land rights in perpetuity.