17 Mar 2015

Tawana Land Board has been instructed to finalise the pending case of issuance of lease to Shorobe Development Trust before the end of March this year.

The Minister of Lands and Housing, Mr Prince Maele, instructed the management during a kgotla meeting after residents complained about the delay by land board to issue a lease of NG35 where the trust intended to venture into tourism activities.

The minister gave both the affected parties two weeks to discuss and finalise the matter, noting that failure to reach an amicable agreement would call for his intervention to see how best the trust could be assisted.

Earlier on, Mr Tshematshe Monwela said they had been allocated 390 hectares of land, which the trust wanted to construct campsite on to promote tourism in the village but land board took long to issue the lease and approve their management plan.

He said the government had assisted the trust with funds to develop the management plan and “we have used over P96 000 to develop the plan but to our surprise land board is failing to approve it.”
He said the trust efforts to eradicate poverty and create jobs for the locals had been frustrated by land board.

For his part, Tawana Sub-land Board chairperson, Mr Kago Motai explained that they were not refusing to issue the lease but appreciated that there was a delay because some mistakes were identified in the lease. He said the trust requested five sites but the lease developed was not specific to the application.

On another issue, residents requested the government to incorporate Mochaba settlement under Shorobe so that they could be allocated residential plots. They accused the land board for denying residents access to land and treating them as squatters. Residents argued that the settlement had been there since 1900 and it was left out when Shorobe layout was developed. Kgosi Molatedi Dingalo said the issue was handled by the former lands and housing minister as they wanted residents to be issued with certificates.

Meanwhile, Mr Maele stated that the policy allows land board to allocate residential plots in recognised villages. He said Mochaba is a settlement in which the community could take up the issue with the council to incorporate it under Shorobe and land board would start allocating plots.
For his part, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Slumber Tsogwane said the area councillor should bring the issue in a form of a motion so that it could be adopted.  ENDS