10 Oct 2016

Minister of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, Mr Prince Maele says he is looking forward to tackling land and water issues in the country.

Officially opening the 11^th leadership forum held in Palapye on Sunday (October 9), Mr Maele said land and water were topical issues close to the nation’s heart, therefore he will do his best to ensure that Batswana had access to land and water.

He said his ministry must deal with issues of the old water infrastructure that contributed to water loss, water conservation and demand management by encouraging the use of recycled water particularly in agriculture.

“Climate change is upon us and the draw down from the boreholes is obviously weak,” thus calling for new initiatives to deal with this problem, adding that this country was a flat country with high evaporation levels.

Mr Maele who is also MP for Lerala/Maunatlala said when he joined the previous Ministry of Lands and Housing, the challenges and perception of people about it was uncomfortable.

He said he set the tone to rebrand and up the game in service delivery.

He said the ministry had intolerable long waiting lists for plot allocation, appeals resolutions, resolution of tribunal cases, pool housing, increasing and unaffordable housing rentals, poor service delivery, poor turnaround times and corruption.

He said even though he could not claim to have succeeded in all the challenges, he attested that together with employees he put in place initiatives that lifted the face of the ministry.

He said service delivery had been improved, boards no longer meet quarterly, but monthly, board committees had been established to deal with service delivery issue, decentralised common law leases, borehole applications and physical planning functions and offices across the country were open to the public over lunch hour.

He said the waiting lists were now public and also his ministry was moving away from operating help desks to customer service centres.

“I do not want this credit alone, it is yours too for we shared the same vision and destiny of this ministry together,” he said.

He further said the reorganisation of the ministry has shed off the housing function, the resultant of this being that staff members who were in the housing department will be joining the newly established Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing.

He said the leadership forum came at the right time, just after independence celebration and the reorganisation of ministries thus it would present an opportunity to introspect and share government direction, attain the inevitable alignment, shape, interpret and underline expectations as one team.

Permanent secretary in the ministry, Mr Thato Raphaka said now was the time to develop a new strategic plan with new strategic foundations or modified strategic foundations.

He said the former Ministry of Lands and Housing strategy was coming to an end this year, hence a need to develop a new strategic plan. ENDS