09 Mar 2016

The land registration exercise is said to be slow at Nata Sub-land Board despite numerous efforts by the authority to sensitise and take services to the people across the seven villages under the board.

This was revealed by Nata Sub-land Board chairperson, Mr Nkinogang Barwadi at a one-day workshop for land registration for the village leadership on Monday.
The chairperson noted that according to their records, they have 18 326 plots allocated in the constituency and that so far, only 3 241 have been claimed under the new land registration exercise.

Mr Barwadi further pointed out that as at last month, they engaged in a seven days taking services to the people initiative with the aim of encouraging and making it easy for people to come forward and register as well as update their records.
He said only a few came forth and that by the end of the seven days across the seven villages of Nata, Gweta, Sepako, Manxotae, Maposa, Tsokatshaa and Zoroga, they only registered 1 715 plots.

The chairperson highlighted that there were some people who voluntarily came to their office at Nata to register, and that they accounted to about 1 526 plots.
He appealed to dikgosi and the Village Development Committees (VDCs) to spread the message on the importance of taking part in the national exercise, adding that when the exercise started, the set target date was December 2015.

He noted that it has been moved to September as per a directive from the Office of the President (OP).

Furthermore, the chairperson stated that for those who would have registered, they were going to receive new certificates which would have security features that were different from the current certificates for purposes of preventing some who would want to forge the new certificate.

Earlier, Kgosi Rebagamang Rancholo of Nata noted that land was one crucial necessity in the lives of many people, and that it was when a person does not have land that they complain.
He said issues of land need consultation and communication before decisions were made so that people could meditate and appreciate the process.

While appreciating the relationship they have with their sub land-board, he however raised concern about the current changes.

He said there was not enough consultations done and that although Batswana have been known to be slow to react to correspondences, in the current exercise, there were many unaddressed questions which he said if not addressed, people would not come to register. Ends