10 Oct 2017

Ngwaketse Land Board deputy board secretary, Mr Thabo Tshipinare says LAPCAS has identified challenges in land administration that delayed the development of land information system.

Mr Tshipinare was presenting the legislation update on Tribal Land Bill, Deeds Registry Amendment Bill and secure land title during a one-day workshop for land board stakeholders in Kanye.

Challenges cited included fragmented land information systems, unsurveyed and unplanned allocations and unregistered land grant. 

He said to address the challenges they had recommended a review of organisational structure.

He said to address the challenges; land board recommended the re-engineering of land allocation processes, development of a land information system and a review of land related acts.

Mr Tshipinare indicated that implementation of those recommendations was aligned to the National Land Policy of 2015, adding that Parliament was still to discuss the Tribal Land Bill.

The bill is a re-enactment of the Tribal Land Act and key provisions in the bill include requirement for registration of tribal land grants at Deeds Registry.

The bill requires all persons who are already in occupation of land granted to them under the repealed act and those allocated by Dikgosi prior to establishment of land boards must apply within six months of the commencement of the new Tribal Land Act to have it registered by the Registrar of Deeds.

Mr Tshipinare said the amendment to the Deeds Registry Act enables registration of customary land grants at Deeds Registry, which will provide for exemption of transfer of customary land grants from the requirement that transfer documents must be prepared by a conveyancer. 

This, he added would ensure that Batswana who had been dealing with land board were not affected by conveyancing costs.

He said Deeds Registry Amendment Bill includes property subject to customary law among other property regimes and requires consent to be given by a spouse in the form of an affidavit, sworn before a commissioner of oaths so as to curb a situation where one spouse defrauds another by forging their signatures signifying consent when dealing with immovable property forming part of a joint estate.

He said the ministry had introduced enhanced security features on papers used in printing land titles. 

He said benefits of secure land titles included the use of customary certificate as collateral, reduction of fraud and forgery of land titles. ENDS