07 Sep 2016

 Malete Land Board has approached the Land Tribunal with an application to evict squatters at Matlapekwe and Metsimaswaane in the BaMalete Tribal Authority.

    The land board said although the land was zoned for agricultural purposes, there were incidences of squatting in the area which had now assumed an appearance of a settlement.

    In its filed papers before the Land Tribunal, the Land Board says incidents of land squatting dates as far back as 2012 when it noticed that there was rapid growth of the said areas.

    An investigation was instituted and the alleged squatters were called for a hearing and ordered to vacate the area.

    The Land Board says the matter has dragged because after being served with notice to vacate, the squatters’ appealed to the President of Botswana but they were unsuccessful.

    The squatters again appealed to Kgosi Kgolo of Balete who proposed further consultations with concerned stakeholders and a consultative meeting was held.

    After consultation with all stakeholders nothing changed and the land board forged ahead with its intention to evict squatters.

     Now after years of delays, the land board is of the view that further delay may result in unintended consequences such as further spread of the problem of squatting.

    It says notwithstanding the fact that there is a valid explanation to the delays, some people who are not privy to the information may believe the land board is not doing anything about self-allocation.

It says further delays will result with some squatters developing their properties and this could be costly for the squatters if their properties are demolished.

    “Squatters are also desirous to know what the outcome of the matter will be so that they could also be able to make proper future plans,” the land board said.

    According to the land board, due to the fact that there are squatters in the area, the areas now appear to have a concentrated settlement patterns and they have assumed an appearance of a recognised settlement.

    Malete Land Board says people have now begun to put pressure on council to provide services and this could ultimately lead to change of land use to residential.

    It notes that the district has a very small land mass and it is currently facing a problem of shortage of arable land hence they oppose any idea of change in land use. ENDS