30 Aug 2017

Ngwaketse Land Board chairperson, Mr Mosimanegape Mophuting has welcomed advice to incorporate the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) land screening tool into their land allocation processes.

Speaking ata board meeting in Kanye recently, Mr Mophuting said had the tool been used alongside the land policy much earlier, it would have improved land allocation, utilisation and many challenges they faced could have been avoided.

“There is haphazard land allocation in some areas, pasture land is being used for crop farming and vice versa because land is being allocated based on business plans only. As a result of this Ngwaketse Land Board does not even have land for livestock boreholes,” he said.

Mr Mophuting however decried that the survey, which culminated with the tool, was done without the engagement of stakeholders in charge of land, as such he said people were easily being allocated land which they could never have acquired working with the tool, in the first place.

Mr Mophuting said the tool could in future assist land boards to allocate particularly production land to people who have a demonstrable capacity to develop it and feed the nation rather than speculators who came with sound business proposals with the view to later sell.     

Meanwhile, the chairman urged board members to arm themselves with documents like the Tribal Land Act, Water Act and land policy among others and acquaint themselves with the Laws regulating land use.

He also advised Ngwaketse landboard to expedite pending, old cases, avoid civil cases the best they could and treat every customers with dignity and respect at all times.

“Reduce expenditure in terms of overtime all you can, but once you have called clients for assistance, help them out the same day," he said.

Mr Mophuting also informed the meeting that the board would take a two day audit visit to encourage officers across the district to conform to standards and stressed the need to use resources sparingly.

He further advised members to declare where there was conflict of interest and fill up declaration forms without fail to avoid being compromised in their service.   

For his part, Mr Mpho Kelosiwang argued that LEA came up with the land screening tool with the view to address the issue of unutilised production land across the country.

He said the tool was able to pick whether or not an applicant had the ability to develop the land or not before it was allocated to them.

He raised concern that the current situation somehow allowed anyone even without ability to develop, to keep idle commercial land so long as they paid for the lease.

Mr Kelosiwang also encouraged land authorities nationwide to standardise their land application procedures to avoid causing customers unnecessary confusion.

He shared that at times a young person would be funded by the Youth Development Fund to do business on a 1x1km farm, but later when they wanted to expand the business through CEDA, they were required to have at least a 3x3km farm.

He said synchronizing the processes could make it easier for Batswana to acquire land anywhere in the country.

For his part, deputy board secretary, Mr Thabo Tshipinare was optimistic that they could go far together with LEA if they took the initiative with open minds.

“We might even sign a Memorandum of Understanding and explore how best we can assist Batswana even those with undeveloped plots before we jump to repossess them because we want them to have land to sustain themselves,” he said. ENDS