16 Jul 2013

Ngwato Land Board is rolling out systematic land registration in Palapye.

The project, which is an initiative by Ministry of Lands and Housing and started in Serowe, would also be rolled out in Mahalapye.

Addressing stakeholders during a consultative workshop in Palapye, Ngwato Land Board principal land surveyor, Mr Kago Pelontwa said a team of officers would be deployed in Palapye to carry out the exercise, adding that the work was expected to take a year to complete.

Mr Pelontwa said the team would conduct a house to house inspection, where plot owners will be expected to produce plot certificates and copies of identity cards for confirmation.

He said the exercise would involve surveying plots and allocate them unique identity numbers, saying that as it was the case plots were neither surveyed nor numbered. Mr Pelontwa also said on completion plot owners would be issued with new plot certificates bearing new identity numbers and some security features.

He said the exercise would also help in drawing the map for Palapye. He also noted that this exercise was of great advantage to those who wanted to apply for title deeds saying that since the plots were already surveyed, applicants would not have to survey their plots again when applying for title deeds.

Surveying a plot, he said was charged P1 000, as such applicants would not be charged the same amount anymore. In addition, he said the exercise would not affect surveyed plots registered with deeds. Mr Pelontwa further said the land board expected information on the certificates to match information on the ground.

However, he said land board had observed that there were special cases where there was information mismatch; nonetheless he said the exercise would help address such issues.

He attributed this to the use of old technology, saying that in the past the landboard used tapes to measure the size of plots, as such the measurements were not accurate.

He said it was also observed that some plot owners had increased their plot sizes, adding that in such instances owners would be compelled to explain. Also, he said the exercise will enable land board to identify squatters.

After the completion of this exercise, he said unregistered plots would be taken over by the land board. In addition, he noted that the project would enable land board to propose for alignment where there is no access to plots or close spaces after consultation with the affected people.

Acting Ngwato Land Board secretary, Mr Otsile Ditiro urged dikgosi, councillors and other stakeholders to give Ngwato Land Board the utmost cooperation in order to make the exercise a success.

He also requested them to help the land board to disseminate this information to the community. Councillors and dikgosi gave this project a green light saying that it will help improve their relationship with the land board. ENDS