13 Jul 2014

Parliament has been informed that a total of 5 500 hectares of land were acquired from Mmopane area covering Kgaphamadi and Dintoroko to cater for the expansion of the greater Gaborone.

Responding to a parliamentary question, Minister of Lands and Housing, Mr Lebonaamang Mokalake said the acquisition of the said land affected a total of 775 farmers.

He said the affected farmers were not allocated alternative ploughing fields because of the unavailability of land, but were compensated in monetary terms.

Further, the minister explained that farmers were not allowed to convert their fields into multi-family residential plots and that was based on the premise of equitable distribution of land.

“To this end, the fields have been acquired for coordinated planning and allocation in accordance with land use zones specified in the development plan. 

This approach also intended to avoid the concentration of land parcels in the hands of few individuals’ allocated fields,” he said.
He also explained that BHC was not an individual, but a parastatal mandated to provide housing to members of the public.

The minister also said it was in line with this mandate that land authorities allocated BHC land to develop multi-family residential units in order to maximise the use of land and accommodated more people.

Kweneng East MP, Mr Moeng Pheto had wanted to know how much land in terms of hectares had been repossessed from Mmopane area covering Kgaphamadi and Dintoroko to pave way for the greater Gaborone Development Plan since 2010/2011 to date.

The MP had also asked the minister to state the number of farmers that were affected and how many of them had been allocated alternative ploughing fields.

Mr Pheto had also wanted to know why individual farmers were denied permission to convert their crop fields into multi residential plots and yet the BHC was allowed to do the same, as it built multi-residential as soon as they acquired such land. ENDS