20 Aug 2015

Land boards are said to be contributing “immensely” to the poor performance of the Ministry of Lands and Housing in issues of service delivery.

According to the Minister of Lands and Housing Mr Prince Maele, the ministry has not done well in the past during ministries’ reviews, something he attributed to the failure by land boards to attain a high level of excellence in delivery services to customers.

Mr Maele, who was addressing Tati Land Board staff recently cited among other concerns, issues such as corruption, conflict of interest, poor record keeping, and lack of supervision as well as lack of collaboration with critical stakeholders as contributing to the failure by land boards to perform their duties satisfactorily.

He implored land boards to devise strategies through which they could turn the situation around for the benefit of the nation.

The minister also informed Tati Land Board staff that board meetings would be held on a monthly basis with effect from next month.

He said he had taken the decision after realising that members of the public had to wait for long before they could be given feedback on their concerns, which had been taken before the boards.

He also stated that he had instructed the leadership of the land boards to ensure that waiting lists for plot applications were publicised, an exercise he said would be effective beginning in October.

Earlier when welcoming the minister, Tati Land Board chairperson Mr Kgotlaetso Morakanyane had expressed gratitude at government’s recent purchase of 21 private farms to alleviate land shortage in the North East district.

Mr Morakanyane had however highlighted some of the concern that Tati Land Board was grappling with; citing among them the slow pace of the on-going land registration exercise as well as the prevalence of illicit land dealings.

He said they had since set up an additional team to address the delays experienced in the land registration exercise.

On the illicit land dealings, he said those were prevalent in the areas closer to Francistown such as Tati Siding.

He observed that the setting up of a sub-land board in Tati Siding would add impetus to the land board’s efforts to arrest the situation before it spiraled out of control.

For his part, the board secretary Mr Fawcus Mmolawa informed the minister that Tati Land Board had already started publicising waiting lists of plots applicants. 

He said though they had not been able so far to do so with regard to all the villages in the district, they had made some progress on the matter, and were committed to continuing to roll out the exercise through-out the entire district. Ends