13 May 2018

The North East District leadership has been sensitised on land and immigration issues.

Addressing participants during a workshop held in Masunga recently, Tati Land Board secretary, Mr Fawcus Mmolawa said most citizens believed that the role of dikgosi in land allocation was diminishing.

Participants included councillors, dikgosi and VDC members from the district.

However, he assured stakeholders that the relationship between the land board and tribal administration was intact.

He noted that dikgosi played a pivotal role in land allocation as ex-officio members of the physical planning committee. He also noted that they appointed land overseers in their respective villages.

“Bogosi also make decisions about issues of inheritance of land for siblings when their parents have passed on, making it easier for the land board to allocate land,” he said.

Mr Mmolawa further said the district council administration prepared a detailed layout of plans for land boards to survey and allocate land.

He also noted that the council advised the land board on land use and prepared development plans for major villages, adding that the two bodies consulted one another before implementing any policy affecting land.

The land board secretary said there was a land policy which guided land use for socio-economic development and enabling efficient land utilisation as well as ensuring that there were sustainable settlements.

He said the policy made it easier for emerging land issues to be rectified and ensure transparency in land management and administration. He also said it curbed corruption and malfunctions of land boards.

He stated that section 58 of the Tribal Land Act stipulated that  citizens should be granted only one plot in their area of choice.

However, noted that the act did not forbid people from buying plots in the private market. “If, however, a person decides to alienate his or her right and sell their plot they will not be allocated another plot in future,” he said.

Mr Mmolawa said the policy stated that if one was not economically empowered enough to develop their land, they should return the land to the local authority. He added that they  should do so before the plot was earmarked for repossession

In so doing, he said such individuals would be given priority in the future when residential plots became available for allocation.

A representative from the Department of Immigration, Civil and National Registration, Ms Tidimalo Kwate raised concern about citizens who were failing to follow the law on citizenship and immigration.

She said failure to comply with the Citizenship Act would result in legal action being taken against those who violated the law.

Ms Kwate said the offences included failure to register a child at birth, refusing to include the father’s name in the birth certificate and giving immigration officers false information.

She further expressed concern over people who failed to register deaths and renewing their identity cards well on time. ENDS