22 Sep 2016

The government has made strides in ensuring that land across the country is surveyed and chronicled for land ownership and use.

In an interview, the director of surveys and mapping in the Ministry of Lands and Housing (MLH), Mr Tshiamiso Oitsile said the government has made progress in the countrywide exercise of surveying land.

“We have managed to survey land in 10 of the 12 districts across the country, with only the land under the jurisdiction of the Ngwato and Tawana land boards still to be surveyed, but with work already underway in Shoshong and Sefhare,” Mr Oitsile said.

He added that it was an important exercise that ensures that owners of land have title deeds, giving them security of tenure and assists in avoiding boundary conflict.

“The MLH has sought to know how many plots exist countrywide, who owns them, and the use for the land be it commercial, industrial or residential or other.

We have also been working on having a land information system where all the data would be digitised. “This will be a huge leap forward as a lot of information pertaining to land will now be readily available,” Mr Oitsile said.

He said for land to be surveyed, the owner of the plot must first have their plans approved as per the Town and Country Planning Act in urban areas, and in rural areas the lease agreement between the land user and the land board needs to be in place.

“This is what has been obtaining with people who already have been allocated plots. But with the new land policy, we are now conducting the surveying before a person can be allocated a plot, and this is another progressive measure,” Mr Oitsile said.

Furthermore, he said the MLH has worked on land surveying using personnel from the ministry and the land boards as well as private surveyors engaged by the MLH.

“We have outsourced some of this exercise to private surveyors, creating about 200 direct jobs in the process. Surveyors first have to go through two years of practice before sitting for examinations before the Land Surveying Council.

If they pass the exercise, they can now be in a position to survey land for the purpose of handing title deeds, which is still a process overseen by the MLH,” Mr Oitsile said.

The ministry also has a broader Land Administration Procedures Capacity and Systems (LAPCAS) programme, with a view of making the national administration of land more effective and efficient.

Mr Oitsile urged people with existing plots to have their plots surveyed, saying this would also help them have security of ownership and avoid conflicts pertaining to their land.

The MLH has embarked on the initiatives as part of government’s overall priority areas which includes making job creation a priority and taking Batswana out of poverty. Ends