27 Mar 2019

Botswana Land Policy had made pronouncements that necessitated consolidation of the land-related Acts and creation of unified Land Authorities at local level to be responsible for all land tenure system.

Answering a question in Parliament, Minister of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, Mr Kefentse Mzwinila said in the process of implementing the Land Policy pronouncements, which involved consultation with other arms of government, the Attorney General’s Chamber advised against consolidation of the Acts for as long as the package of rights under each of the three tenures (freehold, State land, and tribal land remained different.

Therefore, he said consolidation of the Acts was not feasible when the rights thereunder remained different, and the Acts were thus never consolidated.

“That, notwithstanding, my ministry went ahead and facilitated amendments of the Acts separately as advised.

To date, several Acts are at several stages of review,” he said.

Mr Mzwinila said the two Acts, Tribal Land Act and Deeds Registry Act had been amended and awaiting commencement while their associated regulations were at drafting stage.

He said the Bills for amending the remaining land related Acts were at different levels of drafting, adding that after harmonising the Acts, the feasibility of creating unified Land Authorities would be explored further.

Nkange MP Mr Edwin Batshu had wanted the minister to state the progress made in consolidating land-related Acts aimed at harmonising land administration and establishing land authorities to manage land at local levels as promised through the Ministry’s Committee of Supply speech of March 2016. Ends