27 Jan 2016

The Minister of Lands and Housing, Mr Prince Maele, has expressed concern at the rate in which villagers under the jurisdiction of the Letlhakeng Sub-land Board sell their plots.

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Letlhakeng on Tuesday January 26, Mr Maele said a total of 205 plots were sold in the area in the  2015/16 financial year. 

He explained that 18 plots were sold this month alone.

He warned that this development might lead to future generations having no land at all, especially that the national population was increasing.

He said this problem compelled Parliament to pass a new land policy last July, which among other things, prescribed that a person who sells a plot be not re-allocated land.

“This was after we realised that some people have made a business out of selling plots.  They would buy a plot and hold on to it for some time and then sell it at a higher price.  The new policy also requires that a person who has one plot will not be allowed to transfer it to another,” he said.

He advised residents to consider leasing out their land as opposed to selling it. 

He also revealed that his ministry was profiling all undeveloped plots that were over five years with the intention of repossessing them.

He said this was because land boards were overwhelmed by a high number of long waiting lists while plots lied undeveloped.

“In Letlhakeng alone, the waiting list stands at 3 022, and after we identify all the undeveloped plots we will summon their owners to explain their failure to develop them, and if their reasons are not convincing we will repossess such plots and allocate them to those in the waiting list,” he said.

Mr Maele further revealed that they were overwhelmed by appeals where people argued that their plots had long been allocated by the bogosi before the advent of land boards.

 He said this was despite the fact that land boards started operating more than four decades ago, which left one to wonder why such people had not been applying for certificates for such plots.

He expressed worry at residents who used plots for purposes they did not apply them for, citing those who drilled boreholes to water cattle on land allocated for crop farming.

He also advised that developments such as roads in areas where the land was not serviced  could be done through Ipelegeng while negotiations were still underway with the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) and Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) to service such areas.

Village Development Committee chairman, Mr Jacob Lebeko, had earlier on complained that while Letlhakeng was approved as a planning area in 2003, BPC and WUC still refused to extend their services to new plots saying that they were outside their map.

Mr Lebeko also complained about people who sold their ploughing fields to outsiders who later drilled boreholes on the land to water their livestock. 

He said this caused conflict with arable farmers.

In his vote of thanks, the area Member of Parliament, Mr Liakat Kablay, said issues such as the sale of land had been hot topics in his kgotla meetings.

He called on the minister to consider constructing staff houses for civil servants as there was a challenge of lack of accommodation in the village, which forced most of them to commute daily from Molepolole. ENDS