12 Dec 2016

Legislation should be reviewed to allow the allocation of plots to beneficiaries of people who pass away while still in the land board application waiting list, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Francistown South, Mr Wynter Mmolotsi has said.

Tabling a motion before Parliament on December 9, Mr Mmolotsi requested the National Assembly to “review all pieces of legislation that bar allocation of plots to beneficiaries of deceased applicants so that such plots accrue to the estates of the deceased.”

Motivating his motion, Mr Mmolotsi said many people died while on the waiting list, having applied to state or tribal land whose administration was vested in land boards.

“These are people who normally wait as long as 20 years for their plots to be allocated. It is unfair for their children to similarly queue for another 20 years having applied afresh since they cannot benefit from their parent’s earlier application.  This creates a cycle of landless families in this country,” Mr Mmolotsi said.

He added that peri-urban areas located near major cities, in particular Gaborone and Francistown; areas such as Tlokweng, Mogoditshane and Tati Siding, are burdened with many people who apply for land and it is unfair for spouses, children or siblings of people who had to wait long for land not to benefit upon their demise. 

In his intervention, the assistant minister of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, Mr Itumeleng Moipisi said that the application of land was a personal right, which he said was akin to a personal salary that cannot be transferred to the next of kin.

“Land allocation is a right attached to the applicant only and such application cannot be inherited by someone else as only the applicant is the one who is dealing with the allocating authority,” Mr Moipisi said. Although Parliament was adjourned before there could be a vote on the motion, Mr Mmolotsi seemed to have the support of fellow legislators.

Tati East MP, Mr Samson Guma said that he saw nothing wrong with a review of any piece of legislation or policy that could be an impediment to people’s development.

His views were buttressed by Specially Elected MP, Mr Mephato Reatile who said that it was the responsibility of Parliament to rectify any impediment to progress.

Mr Reatile said he had to wait for 25 years before being allocated a plot he had applied for, and it would have been a travesty of justice if he had departed in the interim period with his family unable to benefit from such allocation.
Mochudi West MP, Mr Gilbert Mangole said that Parliament should consider the culture of the Batswana, which dictates that elders should bequeath inheritance upon their offspring.

The Leader of the Opposition, Mr Duma Boko, said most of what was considered common law in Botswana was western customary law, and as such should not prove an impediment to Batswana and their way of doing things. ENDS