04 Mar 2015

The Maun Sub-Land board chairperson, Mr Kgato Moitai has appealed to the Maun Administrative Authority (MAA) councillors to assist the land board in the fight against mushrooming of squatters in the area.

Mr Moitai told the sub-council’s meeting on Tuesday, March 3 that although they had addressed squatters several times on the negative impacts of squatting, their messages fell on deaf ears it seems.

Some squatters’ arguments were weak, such as squatting because one had run away from home because of family misunderstandings.

Others claimed that their councillors or dikgosi had agreed with them to self-allocate themselves, which he said was a disturbing allegation.

Mr Moitai said currently there were about 180 squatters at Moeti ward in Maun, pointing out that the Tribal Land Act dictated that no one should own land without proper land registration.

Meanwhile, Mr Motai said the removal of Shashe squatters was incomplete since some of the squatters had appealed to the High Court, citing a short notice by the Land Board.

He said the affected people were given a one year waiver to have moved out of Shashe, which is said to be a sensitive flood plain area.

However, the land board principal said the one year period had elapsed and that the land board would do a follow up to establish whether all the affected people had moved.

Mr Motai said another assessment would be undertaken to see if the remaining people who had land rights at Shashe should be removed or left there.

For their part, some of the councillors said the delay of plot allocation by the land board was one of the causes of the influx of squatters. ENDS