A few months ago, we discussed in our column whether a non-Tanzanian person who was a beneficiary under a Will might receive a property in accordance with the testator’s (the will maker’s) instructions (Inheriting property). The Land Act, as we understood it at the time, was at issue, and we responded by saying that it was illegal for the property to be transferred to a non-Tanzanian since the Land Act forbade non-Tanzanian citizens from owning land. We would want to elaborate further on this issue in light of a significant ruling made by Dr. Fauz Twaib, J., at the District Registry of the High Court of Tanzania on May 13, 2011.
Our team applied a strict reading of the law, as we knew it, in our response to the inheritance query. For the avoidance of dispute, a non-citizen shall not be allocated or granted land unless it is for investment purposes under the Tanzania Investment Act, according to Section 20 of the Land Act. Our position in the query we responded to was in accordance with section 20 of the Land Act.
The Honourable Judge in his Judgment on a case that is quite similar to the question we had answered, has clarified the position of the law and stated that when a person dies, his or her property moves to the beneficiary under what is called transmission as per the law, and not by way of allocation, grant or transfer as captured by section 20 of the Land Act. Hence the transmission of property does not, in the opinion of the Court, get captured by section 20 of the Land Act.
We give a passage from the decision as an example. “I do not believe that stating that a deceased person’s heir is not eligible to inherit landed property unless they are a Tanzanian is in keeping with the spirit of this clause. Indeed, it is evident to me and I hold that a gift of a deceased person’s property upon his or her death is neither a grant nor an allocation of a right of occupation from a legal perspective, as I have attempted to explain above. As a result, it is acceptable under the law to make a bequest in favor of a noncitizen.
Hence the Court has ruled that it is legal for a non Tanzanian to inherit a property under a Will or letters of administration as it does not get captured by the Land Act.
 Unless an appeal is taken and the decision is reversed, this is the position of the law as it stands today. reading out more on citizen news
