26 Aug 2019

Member of Parliament for Gabane/Mmankgodi, Maj. Gen. Pius Mokgware has encouraged women to apply for land.

The MP said this recently when addressing a kgotla meeting in Mmankgodi to brief the community about the previous Parliament session’s deliberations.

He said the changes effected in the land policy, among them the one allowing married people to each be allocated a residential plot, had a huge impact on the lives of the community.

Maj. Gen. Mokgware thus encouraged women to take advantage and apply for land ownership, saying in most cases, women were disadvantaged when their relationships turn sour as some were evicted from their homes.

He also pleaded with husbands to allow their spouses to own land, as there was nothing wrong with both owning plots.

He said those who would have bought or inherited land, would not be entitled to any allocations.

The MP further told Mmankgodi community that change of land use had been simplified as one could now use half of their agricultural land for integrated farming without much hassles as it was before.

Therefore, he discouraged the community from selling land, warning that if they were not careful, their land would end up in the hands of foreigners, which would leave the local community poor.

Maj. Gen. Mokgware further cautioned those who have not developed their farms and plots that the government would not shy away from repossessing them.

 He also told the community that the government had resolved to tighten financial regulations to guard against money laundering.

 As such, all depositors of cash above P5 000 will have to provide the source of the funds and failure to do so could lead to the person being reported to the police for further investigations.

 For their part, the community complained about poor service from Thamaga Sub-land Board. Ends