14 Sep 2015

Ranch owners in the Ngamiland District must engage Sehithwa Land Board concerning their request for a waiver to increase the waiting period to develop their ranches.

The Minister of Lands and Housing, Mr Prince Maele, said this when responding to ranch owners’ plea for a waiver to be given a 10-year waiting period to develop their ranches.

The ranch owners said their efforts to develop the ranches were unsuccessful due to the absence of beef market in the district.

One of the ranch owners, Mr France Rueza, said they had made an agreement with land board officials and promised to develop ranches within the agreed period, but unfortunately the ranches had not been productive for years hence they failed to develop. He pleaded with the minister to give them a waiver until the situation improves.

Although Mr Maele appreciated their concern, he said the period could not be increased to 10 years.

Chairperson of Sehithwa Village Development Committee, Ms Maletelo Mothaiwa also about idle land within the village noting that some residents tried their luck to apply for the land but were rejected.

She said the village was surrounded by boreholes therefore there was no space for village expansion except for the existing land within the village therefore pleaded with the land board to allocate such land to the residents.

She also raised a concern about allocated plots near Lake Ngami, which she said had long been allocated but were still underdeveloped. 

She called on land board to repossess and re-allocate those plots to applicants on the waiting list.

Ms Mothaiwa also noted that delay to bringing services such as water, roads closer to the people hindered the community’s efforts to develop their plots. The chairperson complained that most residents were not benefiting from programmes such as SHHA home improvement and SHHA turnkey because of lack of knowledge.

Mr Maele urged residents to report and register all the spaces and old buildings in their village with land board so that they could trace owners before allocation.

He said land boards could not allocate the spaces and old buildings without the villagers giving it a go ahead.  He also told residents that their aim was to allocate plots where there was layout. The minister also cautioned residents to desist from using fields as cemetery saying it was violation of the law. 

He appreciated the cultural beliefs but noted that the Tribal Act did not allow people use fields as graveyards. Furthermore, Mr Maele said the act gave the minister powers to exhume the corpses if people neglected the policies.

“We do respect people’s cultures and this is a sensitive issue which needs to be addressed with care. I urged you to follow the policies and acts in place as they are meant to guide us.”

Regarding SHHA, the minister informed residents that the services facilitated by the programme were  only available for citizens with an annual income ranging between P4400- P36 400.

For home improvement scheme, he said applicants started re- paying loan when applications had been approved and funded while for Turnkey, start re-paying when a key was handed to applicants. Both programmes are payable for a period of 20 years. Ends