28 Mar 2019

 The revised Deeds Registry Amendment Bill of 2017 is now ready for implementation after President, Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi signed it into law recently.

Assistant Minister of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, Mr Itumeleng Moipisi, told a kgotla meeting in Thankane in the Southern District that what was left was for the minister to decide when it should start being implemented.

The law, he said, would benefit Batswana on issues of land development.

He said this was because under the law, plot owners would now be issued with tittle deeds rather than the current arrangement where they were only issued with certificates.

“We have realised that certificate do not serve much purpose, but only proof that one owns a piece of land, but under the new law the owner will be able to use the tittle deed to access loans to develop residential plots or drill boreholes. Under the old arrangement one was required to spend more money to apply for the tittle deed when they wanted a loan,” he said.

Mr Moipisi also said another benefit was that under the law, married persons would not be allowed to sell land without the consent of their spouse.

He also informed the residents that it was time the law was revised as it was put in place in 1960, which meant that many clauses in it were outdated.

The assistant minister also informed the residents about the Tribal Land Bill, which had also been reviewed after being first put in use in 1968. The bill would now require that compensation be commensurate with the value of the land if it was to be appropriated.

On other issues, Mr Moipisi informed residents that the Thankane Expansion Area was still available for the community to use, only that the land still awaits a borehole to be drilled for their livestock before they could be allowed to access it.

He was responding to the chairman of the Village Development Committee (VDC), Mr Ontiretse Barolong who had indicated that they had long been told that the area would be given to them to expand their village and use it as grazing area.

He said what was only left, according to their knowledge was for negotiations to be done with people that currently occupy the area to make way for the village expansion.

For his part, the chairman of Ngwaketse Landboard, Mr Mosimanegape Mophuting implored residents of Thankane, especially the youth not to confine themselves only to their village of birth, but seek plots in other areas in the country as the law allows citizens to apply anywhere they wish.

He advised them take leaf from residents of congested villages such as Tlokweng and Ramotswa whose land boards no longer allocate ploughing fields, compelling the residents to apply in far flung areas.

Mr Morolong also cautioned that it was against the law for any land overseers to refuse outsiders rights to land. 

He said this after many residents complained about shortage of land in their village, which is sandwiched by private farms.

For his part the area Member of Parliament, Mr Shawn Ntlhaile said that the issue of land shortage in Thankane now spanned over four decades, and said it was the ultimate wish of residents that it be solved soon.

He pleaded with government to buy some of the nearby private farms for the village to expand. ENDS