10 Nov 2017

Chobe Land Board chairperson, Mr Johane Chenjekwa has revealed that his land board has 17 095 applications in its waiting list for the eight villages in its jurisdiction.

Addressing a press conference in Francistown on November 8, Mr Chenjekwa said Kazungula and Lesoma have the highest number of applications with 8 916 and 5 092 respectively.

He said while 74 per cent of the land in the district was comprised of the Chobe National Park and six forest reserves, the land board has to accommodate the growing demand for land.

Mr Chenjekwa said the land board has partnered with the district council to develop detailed layout plans in some villages to avail more land for allocation, but that in Lesoma and Pandamatenga no land was identified.

He explained that Lesoma has no area of expansion due to the forest reserve and the border between Botswana and Zimbabwe while in Pandamatenga the area earmarked for expansion was affected by squatters.

The chairperson said 20 squatters were identified and given up to October 22 to relocate, saying the board would approach the land tribunal for eviction if they did not comply.

He said the other challenge that the board had was that of revenue collection.

He explained that while the board has a target to collect P950 000 as annual lease rentals for the current financial year, only P151 991 was collected.

He said the target for agricultural lease stands at P955 310, and that the land board had collected 60 per cent of the target. 

Regarding water and waste water management, the board chairperson said currently there was a challenge with delivery of bills, and urged customers to check their accounts by dialing *186# from their mobile phones or call the customer care line on the toll free number 0800 555 555.

He said debt continues to be a challenge for the Kasane Management Centre with debt levels at over P14 million.

He said most of the debt was from domestic consumers followed by businesses and local authorities respectively.

He noted that efforts to collect the debt remained a challenge as customers were non-responsive even after disconnection. 

On the board’s achievements, Mr Chenjekwa said the Chobe Land Board has earmarked Pandamatenga for the implementation of government’s endeavour to establish Special Economic Zones (SEZ). 

He said the area has fertile soils that could help enhance food security in the country.

He said the district was also involved in the implementation of the Agro-Zambezi water transfer scheme which was aimed at expanding the existing commercial farms in Pandamatenga by an additional 45 000 hactare through the supply of water from Chobe River as well as transfer of water from the Chobe District to the southern part of the country.

He said consultations by the district leadership were already conducted with the Kasane Lesoma Pandamatenga (KALEPA) Community Trust in September, and that the community agreed to relinquish the land under the trust for allocation to the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.

Still on achievements, Mr Chenjekwa said the land board has undertaken to identify open spaces between existing commercial farms and that a total of 3 447 hactares  had been identified for possible demarcation of medium scale farms.

He said additionally two areas measuring 173 hactares and 190hactares had been reserved and would be advertised for allocation to youth aged 18-35 years nationally through tendering.

Earlier the land board secretary, Mr Kealeboga Kemoreile said the land board had tried to structure its mandate in line with the National Development Plan 11 pillars of sustainable economic development, ensuring sustainable environment and governance, peace and security.

Mr Kemoreile said land contributes to conflicts as it has proved in other countries that conflicts emanated from poor land use.

He noted that challenges such squatting has the potential to bring conflicts especially where some people were expected to be on the waiting list. ENDS