01 Nov 2017

Over 142 000 people are still waiting to be allocated residential plots in the Molepolole/ Lentsweletau Sub-district while over 5 000 applicants have applied for arable land in the sub-district.

This was revealed by Molepolole Administrative Authority, Lentsweletau Sub-council chairperson, Mr Botokanyana Motoroko during the sub-district council meeting in Kopong.

With the influx of people seeking employment in Gaborone most villages in the greater Gaborone area have experienced a high number of residential plot applications.

Of the three sub-land boards, Lentsweletau has recorded the highest number of applications with 70 840 people in the waiting list. It is followed by Molepolole with 60 316 applications and 11 478 applicants at Lephephe sub-land board.

Mr Motoroko said this was against the sub land boards’ annual target of allocating 500 plots.  

He noted that 260 plots have been allocated in the previous two quarters.  

He said most of the applications were done in the Lentsweletau sub region.

Mr Motoroko further said challenges faced by the land boards include requests for sub divisions on surveyed land, difficulty in locating plot owners to claim their plots and lack of plot beacons for allocated plots.  All these, he said, delayed land acquisition.

Commenting on the community constituency programme, the sub council chairperson said funds for the approved 130 community projects had been released, and that the sub district had started implementation of the projects.

He also said the overall progress made was estimated at around 30 per cent  as at the end of September.  

He said the major volume of pre-activities had been achieved, adding that the activities ranged between identification of plots for some projects, identification of contractors and supply and delivery of materials on sites.

Mr Motoroko also announced that government had taken a resolution not to give farmers coupons to acquire seeds, but that they would only be issued from the extension area officer.  

He added that only farmers who had tested their soils would be supplied with fertilizers in order to improve production and curb the misuse of fertilizers.

On the issue of infrastructure projects, Mr Motoroko stressed that the maintenance of streetlights remained a priority in the sub district hence they had engaged a maintenance contractor to undertake routine and emergency maintenance of streetlights and floodlights in Molepolole.  

The contractor would also attend to emergency faults which arise from accidents, as they experienced a lot of knocked down poles due to accidents. BOPA