04 Mar 2018

Chobe Land Board chairperson, Mr Johane Chenjekwa says the board and the council were strategic partners that needed each other towards ensuring good service delivery to the community.

Speaking at a stakeholder activation workshop organised by the Chobe Land Board on recently, Mr Chenjekwa said council was a strategic partner in each and everything that the land board did as they both existed to serve the community.

He said the two institutions shared the success, failures and challenges because all the developments done by the council took place on the land , which land board was a custodian of.

Mr Chenjekwa noted that the essential element of the two was that they existed for government and should therefore adopt a one government approach despite having members of different affiliations at the council.

In instances where the communities were not satisfied with the services of the land board, he said the council should come on board and help address grievances as ‘a council client is in a way a land board client’, adding that it was therefore important to close the gap and remain united.

Mr Chenjekwa urged both the councillors and the board members to entertain the rule of law and to always ensure all their decisions were based on the governing instruments to avoid appeals that delayed the implementation of developments.

On other issues, the Chobe Land Board chairperson informed stakeholders that the district was faced with a challenge of land shortage as a great portion of the district was made up of national parks and foreign reserves.

Mr Chenjekwa cited that in Lesoma, there was no more tribal land available for allocation, but the waiting list was at over 5 000.

He observed that developments such as the international airport and the bridge would add more pressure to the land demand in the area. He appealed to the councillors to have an input in addressing the issue of squatting in Pandamatenga and to encourage those who had been allocated plots to utilise programmes such as SHHA and Turn Key to avoid repossession.

Mr Chenjekwa applauded the council for the internal roads in Flowertown, citing that those were some of the developments that encouraged people to develop their plots. He also commended the council for facilitating

VDC applications for the extraction of sand in burrow pits adding that it was one way of encouraging the community not to depend on government for handouts.

The board secretary, Mr Kealeboga Kemoreile said the objective of the stakeholder workshop was to update the councillors on the state of land allocation in the district, apprise them on emerging issues in land administration and management and to create awareness on key land transaction processes, amongst others.

Mr Kemoreile said a total of 11 884 plots were allocated for residential plots, 2 774 for ploughing fields and 26 for boreholes and cattle posts.

He said Kazungula had the highest waiting list of 8 916 followed by Lesoma and Pandamatenga with 5 062 and 1 802 respectively.

He said some of the challenges experienced were shortage of land, human/wildlife co-existence, flood prone areas in Satau and Parakarungu and compliance to development covenant.

In his presentation, the deputy council secretary, Mr Lesang Leloba said positive interactions would give stakeholders the freedom to focus on opportunities rather than spending more time and energy on overcoming problems associated with negative relationships.

Mr Leloba called on stakeholders to acknowledge their interdependence and embrace one another in the spirit of providing quality service to the community. ENDS