Tanzania, Feb. 14 -- With a larger than life personality, Edward Lowassa has attracted the attention of many commentators and analysts. Mine is to look at some of his actions that had relevance to the area of property and urban development.

Lowassa was minister for Lands and Human Settlements Development between 1993 and 1995. During the mid-1980s chaos was ruling high in the Lands sector, characterized by land conflicts and disputes, land grabbing, environmental degradation, land maladministration (such as double or trebble allocation), and, in urban areas, the privatization of public open spaces. In the early 1990s President Mwinyi had appointed Prof Issa Shivji to head a Commission to look into land matters and advise.

In the city of...