02 Apr 2019

Parliament has been told that a total of 1 140 jobs were created under the national land registration project.

Assistant Minister of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, Mr Itumeleng Moipisi said under data collection, capturing and verification in the system at land boards and the Department of Surveys and Mapping, 1 004 jobs were created for Batswana while under private surveying, 136 jobs were created and 92 of them were undertaken by Batswana.

The assistant minister further explained that 45 private surveying companies were engaged to survey plots across the country during the land registration exercise, noting that 39 out of the 45 companies were local firms.

Mr Moipisi also noted that land boards were still processing land survey records of some urban villages for approval, as land board surveyors had to do both surveying and collection of ownership details for the land board to know the current owner of the plot.

He noted that private surveyors were only surveying plots, and were also given priority on examination and approval of survey records with the view to support their business operations.

Mr Moipisi added that the prioritisation of private surveyors gave them an advantage to complete the work faster.

Furthermore, he stated that surveying of ploughing fields and boreholes was planned to start in the 2019/2020 financial year.

However, he said the surveying and adjudication of ploughing fields was expected to take time due to the complexity of issues like unresolved boundary issues, remoteness, unfenced fields and unclear boundaries.

“The land boards will need full support of field owners and land overseers to resolve the challenges,” he said.

The Member of Parliament for Ghanzi North, Mr Noah Salakae had asked the assistant minister to state the number of jobs created under the national land registration project and what percentage was Batswana.

He also asked if Mr Moipisi was aware that the surveys carried out at urban villages throughout the country were yet to be approved, and also state when ploughing fields and boreholes would be surveyed and approved as per the original project scope. Ends