02 Jul 2018

Francistown councillors have unanimously resolved to invite the Minister of Land Management and Sanitation Services, Mr Kefentse Mzwinila to come and respond to land management issues in their city.

They are also seeking audience with the minister regarding the allocation of plots at Gerald Estate that has taken too long as they became available in 2012.

These are the 2 512 unallocated serviced plots, out of which 1 988 are residential in the middle and high income categories and 427 being non-residential.

Making the resolution during a special full council meeting, which was addressed by the Department of Lands director, Ms Segomotso Maroba, councillors said she did not address their concerns, but rather addressed them on issues of policies and processes of land allocation.

Councillor Joe Gunda of Somerset East said the relationship between the Francistown Council and the parent ministry was no longer amicable because of the land management issue in the city as well as unallocated plots at Gerald Estate.

Councillor Gunda explained that there are many land issues that they have wanted the director to respond to, but to no avail and that the only available option is to invite the Minister responsible for land.

Some councillors explained that some of the plots were not developed because they are expensive for their owners to develop, while banks on the other hand are not willing to loan money to people who do not have title deeds.

Earlier on when addressing councillors, Ms Maroba promised that her department would have run the allocation at Gerald Estate not later than September.

She told councillors that allocation of plots, particularly residential, was done through a computerised system basing on the availability of names matched against the availability of the plots in an automatic manner.

Ms Maroba explained that sometimes the delay was caused by unavailability of some information such as identity numbers to guarantee allocation.

She explained that such allocations were deferred until they were updated before they can be put back into the waiting list for allocation.

As such, Ms Maroba explained that 1 000 plots were deferred at Gerald Estate and the department had to clean-up its data before it could run the allocations.

She said sometimes the delay was caused by the new policy of one person one plot allocation because the department had to cross-check whether or not the applicants did not have plot(s) somewhere, which was done through urban councils and the Botswana Housing Corporation, adding that the process was done manually.

Regarding non-residential plots, the director explained that their allocation was done through advertisement for tender and they were always allocated directly.

She explained that most non-residential (industrial and commercial) plots in Francistown, which were advertised did not attract bidders.

Ms Maroba said there were about 250 residential plots in Francistown and appealed  to councillors to  help by encouraging  those who had been allocated plots to developed them.

She also informed councillors that there were also other undeveloped commercial plots within the local centre around the city, but the owners argued that they were allocated without infrastructure development.

Ms Maroba also briefed the council about illegal occupation of land by some churches, revealing that the department had written them letters that they should vacate such plots. ENDS