01 Aug 2017

The Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) still faces a task of compensating on time farmers whose property has been destroyed by wildlife.

In the Letlhakeng Sub - district, the department has managed to compensate 140 farmers whose property was lost to wildlife only up to last year.

Speaking during the opening of the Letlhakeng sub council forum on Monday, the chairperson, Cllr Tlotlo Batlhophi said close to P126 000 was used to settle 140 cases for the backlogs from the years 2014 to 2016 while 43 remaining cases were carried forward into financial year 2017/2018.

He said for this quarter, 19 more cases have already been registered with nine livestock having been lost through predation while a total of 11 fields were invaded by elephants.

He however said no compensation was paid for cases registered this year due to exhaustion of funds, and that 62 cases were still waiting funds with requisition for additional funds having been submitted to headquarters.

The Letlhakeng sub district is one of the areas in the country prone to human-wildlife conflict because of its proximity to Khutse Game Reserve. Apart from such conflict, Cllr Batlhophi said that land, vegetation and wildlife conditions were currently generally good and therefore no drought was anticipated this quarter.

Meanwhile Cllr Batlhophi indicated that beneficiaries at all the five RADS settlements in the sub district engaged in various income generating projects such as bakery and sewing are doing well.

He said engagement of the beneficiaries by the council in the supply of bread and school uniforms to the local schools enabled them to make profit.

Cllr Batlhophi however, said even though these groups were making profit, the challenge of lack of agreed terms on how they could benefit from such profits accrued made them to depend on council for support.

Under the Destitute Housing Programme, Cllr Batlhophi indicated that 52 houses were completed in the last financial year across the district while this financial year, 52 more were expected to be built out of which 25 would be at non-RADS villages while 27 would be at RADS villages.

On issues of land, Cllr Batlhophi informed the sub council that the total waiting list for Letlhakeng Sub Land Board was 7 565 for residential plots and 967 for ploughing fields. He said management of waiting list and allocations is currently done through the application of the National Land Policy of 2015, but that there were some challenges in the implementation of the policy which have resulted in some clause being taken for further consultations.

He said currently receipt of applications for ploughing fields was still suspended.

He said the land registration exercise which was scheduled to be completed nationally end of January this year has since been postponed to August, but said Kweneng was given the deadline of end of last month.

“Currently Kweneng Land Board is at 33 per cent while Letlhakeng Sub Land Board is at 34 per cent and Motokwe Sub Land Board at 67.5 per cent.

The department continues to face some challenges of land registration, huge influx of land rights transfers, lease rental arrears and failure to follow development covenant,” he said. ENDS