22 Jul 2015

Lands and housing minister has pleaded with Batswana to stop encouraging corruption by bribing land board officials.

Minister Prince Maele made this plea when addressing a kgotla meeting in Tsabong on Monday (July 27). 

The minister said residents should avoid such practice because land issues were sensitive and had caused conflict the world over.

He pointed out that his ministry continued to receive grievances of corruption, maladministration and poor service delivery.

“I admit that though some grievances are genuine, residents are the ones perpetrating corruption because they bribe officials and sometimes we are forced to allocate serviced plots due to pressure from the public,” Minister Maele said. 

He said those who knew of any corrupt officials should report them to the relevant authorities so that proper action could be taken.

Undeveloped plots, he said, were a cause for concern as some people took up to 20 years without developing them.

On other issues, Minister Maele said the new land policy stated that Batswana would not be allowed to sell residential plots especially if they had only one plot.

He said they would only be allowed to sell to Batswana and or advertise incase no Batswana wanted that piece of land.

Mr Maele pointed out that the youth were the main culprits in this issue and as a result, cabinet had decided to register business plots under the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture so that so that they could sub-lease to those who needed them. 

He urged residents to register their plots so that they could be surveyed and be given title deeds and in that way owners could easily access financial assistance from banks.

The minister said the waiting list for all those who applied for plots was going to be made public for transparency. Ends