29 Apr 2019

Ngamiland community trusts have hailed government’s efforts to address some of the issues that impede citizen participation in the tourism industry.

Such issues include introduction of tourism land bank, back door deals by some trust board members, uplifting of fish export, poor governance among trusts boards and moratorium enterprise, among others.

They hailed the government during an engagement meeting with the Minister of Environment, Natural Resources, Conservation and Tourism, Mr Kitso Mokaila, who informed the gathering that things would be back to normal as the government had taken a decision to suspend some of the decisions to encourage citizen participation in the tourism sector.

They pinned their hopes on the return of minister Mokaila, to the ministry, noting that he had a clear direction and was eager to work with them for the betterment of the communities and assured him their support to increase citizen participation in tourism.

They said the land bank issue was introduced without consultation and it made communities spectators in their concessions because they had been disempowered and denied ownership as the ministry was in control of everything.

“The land bank was meant to punish us as some of us did not know how much the investor was paying to operate in our concession and we have never received payment from the investor since it was introduced,’ said Mr Katanga Dinonoka from Etsha 6.

He said the community was not benefiting at all because they did not have a good working relationship with the investor.

The land bank arrangement was introduced in 2012 and trusts were against the new arrangement and had been calling on the government to re-visit it. Mr Molatlhegi Moyei of Okavango Community Trust thanked the minister for taking their concerns into consideration and coming up with changes that promote involvement of communities in tourism activities.

He stated that Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) policy had been in existence, but was not producing expected results and believed that indeed things would be back to normal as the minister had announced. Earlier on, Mr

Mokaila had urged trusts to join forces with government to ensure tourism benefits the communities as expected, adding that government wanted both the investors and the community to have a fair deal.

He said they should know that the government was on their side, hence their support was crucial in ensuring increased local participation in the tourism sector.

He said the government had reserved 10 concessions for the locals. Batswana, he said, should be first to benefit from their resources and have improved livelihoods.

The minister warned some board members who had ‘back door’ agreements with some foreigners to stop the practice as the ministry would no longer issue licences to them.

Mr Mokaila revealed that the government was committed to ensuring that all benefit equally, adding that they were going to do away with poor governance within the trusts, which saw some board members enriching themselves while the community remained poor.

A small unit, he said, had been established within his ministry to work closely with community trusts to ensure that proper practices are followed to the letter.

In addition, he revealed that the CBNRM Act was being finalised and they would engage the community for input.

He said they wanted the programme to be a success by changing the lives of the community.
CBNRM coordinator from the ministry, Mr Boatametse Modukanele informed the gathering that they had written to investors to pay directly to the trusts and submit proof of payment.

He also concurred that poor governance had been a hindrance to trusts and urged boards to do things in a transparent manner for the best interest of the communities.

Some trusts, he said, had been paying millions and there was no accountability on the funds while some attracted sitting allowance unnecessarily.

He stated that they had formulated a standard template to guide all trusts on sub-leasing of their concessions.

Mr Modukanele also stated that some trusts wasted money on legal fees and urged them to stop rushing to courts when they encounter challenges. ENDS