22 Nov 2017

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, Mr Thato Raphaka says Botswana has established a system of spatial planning that facilitates development.

Speaking during the ongoing physical planner’s conference in Gaborone on November 21, Mr Raphaka said the spatial planning was anchored on various legislative frameworks, but primarily the Town and Country Planning Act of 2013 and various policies such as the Land Policy, Tourism Policy and Agriculture.

He said all these aimed at improving settlement development structures participation and people’s livelihoods as well as the totality of governance and people’s facilitation.

Mr Raphaka said several spatial planning initiatives continued to be hatched and they must be contextualised within the overall planning strategy.

“More importantly, everything that we do must be focused,” he said.

Mr Raphaka said Botswana’s development agenda must equally be fixed on the national principles of democracy, development, self-reliance, unity and Botho.

He said it was through such recognition that the nation could adhere and influence the national and global agenda, saying it all must be people-centric, focusing on developments that promote prosperity.

He further said planning should be integrated to facilitate rural and urban development, influence social and economic policy development and be change-oriented.

“People are beginning to prefer out of town living, hence the need for efficient transport services. Some traditional villages are transforming into fully fledged urban centres. I want to be able to punctually commute daily from Palapye to Gaborone, what is the department of Planning doing to facilitate mobility between places,” he asked rhetorically.

The permanent secretary said rural-urban symbiosis was an important factor that must be integrated into the national economy through spatial planning, but should focus on plans that stimulated development as well as on a regional planning approach.

He said refocusing land management in a global context would help in unlocking economic potential of land through housing development.

“We must also monitor the development trend and patterns, as these assist in showing the pointers desirable by market forces,” Mr Raphaka said. ENDS