11 Jul 2016

Chobe land board chairperson, Mr Nelson Masule has encouraged the public who have not yet registered their plots to do so as soon as possible because the Land Administration Procedures, Capacity and Systems (LAPCAS) will come to an end in September.

Speaking at the Chobe Land board press conference recently, Mr Masule noted that through LAPCAS his board registered a total number of 12 234 surveyed plots, 7 689 claimed, 7 926 verified and 7 232 adjudicated in the district.

He added that some of the reasons that delay the project completion include the duplicate plot claims which require further investigations, unreliable records, files missing with critical information and some customers being reluctant to claim their land.

Mr Masule also reminded plot owners of industrial and commercial plot to pay their lease rentals. He shared their journey on the execution of their mandate of administration and tribal land in the Chobe District and said the district comprises Chobe National Park and six forest reserves which amount to about 74 per cent of the total land in the district leaving only a total of 26 per cent for human settlements.

He added that the scarcity of land in the district calls for effective use of land to allow for sustainable development as there is a growing concern on shortage of land particularly for residential land use hence reduction of plot size becoming imperative to accommodate the growing population demands.

He gave an insight of the Kazungula re-development plan (facelift) that the assessment of affected properties was completed in April 2016 for commercial, industrial and residential plots and has attracted a total amount of about P55 million as compensation. He said the project is faced with challenges such as the resistance from affected property holders and that delay in compensating of property holders might attract six per cent interest on their compensation amount.

He explained that the existing budget will not be enough to cover expenses for compensation and engagements of project consultants.

Mr Masule said the Chobe Land Board is currently implementing some projects under the Economic Stimulus Package (ESP) in partnership with Chobe District Council.

He said some of the projects include development of guidelines for implementation of Kasane-Kazungula re-development plan, servicing of Nyungwe Area for relocations from Old Kazungula, part of Kgapamadi and Newtown location, the project will cost P129 million.

He added that there will be a minimal land servicing through construction of access roads, sewer lines and water reticulation at Kazungula, Lesoma and Kachikau.

Mr Masule said the Chobe Land Board has allocated 107 plots to Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) for construction of public officers’ houses in Kazungula, Pandamatenga, Ngoma, Mabele, Savuti and Sedudu this financial year. He said the Ministry of Lands and Housing has come up with an initiative of publishing the plot waiting list in all public notice boards at different kgotla. He added that due to land shortage they are faced with illegal land occupation by some churches noting that they have registered 20 churches squatting in Kasane on an area marked for residential purposes.

He said that due to the emerging squatters in Kasane the land board will be implementing a squatting management strategy and guidelines to curb squatting in the current financial year.

Mr Masule noted that they are also faced with an escalating number of fraudsters within the district as people are eager to get a piece of land. He said they are experiencing some criminal activities whereby some unscrupulous individuals call customers claiming to be working for the land board and willing to allocate them plots within their area of jurisdiction.

He added that these criminals usually ask customers to e-wallet them certain amounts of money for them to be shown their beacons or to speed up land allocation processes.

He encouraged the public to report such cases to the police and warned that all land board transactions should be paid at the board’s treasury department where customers are given receipts as proof of payment. ENDS