19 Jun 2019

The Land Information System (LIS), which is at piloting stage, is expected to be rolled out to the land boards next month. 

In the Southern District, Maokane and Phitshane Molopo sub-land boards have been earmarked for the roll out. 

Speaking at a full council session in  Kanye on June 17, Southern District Council chairperson, Mr Alec Seametso said the new system would improve land management and related social and economic wellbeing of citizens. 

“LIS is a computerised system intended to add value to efficiency and effectiveness of land management and administration for social wellbeing and sustainable economic development in Botswana. When fully operational, the system is also intended to be fully integrated with other government systems and be supportive of electronic land title transfers,” he said. 

Consequently, the chairman implored councillors to provide the necessary support and further inform their communities about such a development. He urged members of the public to exercise patience during this period of transformation. 

On plot allocation, Mr Seametso commended Rolong Land Board for exceeding its target in the last financial year. 

He said the landboard managed to allocate 314 plots against the targeted 300, further noting that a new target of 500 plots had been set for the current financial year. 

“This financial year 2019/20, the landboard has set a target of 500 plots to allocate. The maintained waiting list of 16643 has been published in various notice boards across the jurisdiction to make the allocation process as transparent to the applicants as possible,” he noted. 

On one hand, Mr Seametso noted that Ngwaketse Land Board only managed to allocate 15 per cent of target as at April this year.

He said of the 2 300 targeted, only 346 plots for various uses were allocated, adding that of the allocated plots, 26 residential and seven ploughing fields were allocated under the old tribal leaders’ system. 

On other issues, Mr Seametso said even though the council was working around the clock to expedite the construction of mini stadia at Kanye, Moshupa and Goodhope as per plan, they were facing challenges due to the lengthy processes involved. 

“We are trying by all means to expedite delivery of these stadia but as you may be aware, implementation of these projects has important milestones to achieve, which are usually time consuming such as land acquisition, production of drawings, conducting of geotechnical surveys and production of Environmental Management Plans (EMPs),” he said. 

He said they were awaiting the finalisation and subsequent approval of the EMP for Moshupa stadium, while adjudication of EMP service providers was ongoing for Goodhope stadium. ends