07 Mar 2018

Malete Land Board is in the process of cancelling a title deed issued to Kgosi Seboko Mokgosi on behalf of Balete following its statutory termination when the farm Forest Hill KO9 was tribalised.

Answering a question in Parliament, Minister of Land Management Water and Sanitation Services, Mr Prince Maele said in terms of the Deeds Registry Act, the Registrar of Deeds could only cancel a registered deed upon an order of the High Court.

He said Malete Land Board had therefore issued a statutory notice and served it on all interested parties via the Registrar of Deeds, the Attorney General of Botswana, Kgosi Mosadi Seboko (cited in her capacity as the representative of Balete Tribe) and Gamalete Development Trust.

He said this was done to satisfy the title deed cancellation process as dictated by the laws of Botswana and this matter was settled in the Court of Appeal Quarries of Botswana versus Bamalete Development Trust.

Minister Maele said in terms of Section 8 of the Deeds Registry Act, registered deeds are cancelled by the Registrar of Deeds upon an Order of the High Court.

He said notwithstanding, the Court of Appeal of Botswana, when dealing with the issue of compensation pertaining to farm Forrest Hill KO9 during the hearing of the matter stated that ‘Section 8 of the Constitution of Botswana provides that there is no reason to acquire for public purposes with state funding a property already held for public purposes with state funding and therefore the issue of compensation does not arise.’

MP for Ramotswa, Mr Samuel Rantuana had asked the minister if it was true that Malete Land Board had taken the Paramount Chief of Balete to court over the cancellation of the title deed of Bamalete Development Trust Forrest Hill Farm KO9 (BDTFHFKO9) and if so, whether the deeds were cancelled in courts and whether the minister had ever tried to meet members of the Bamalete Development Trust to discuss the issue of compensation as per Section 8 of the Constitution of the country. ENDS