11 Sep 2019

 Government has taken a decision to halt the allocation of ranches in a wildlife management area known as SO2 that borders a number of villages in the Ngwaketse west area.

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Mabutsane on September 10, the Minister of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services Mr Kefentse Mzwinila explained that government took the decision after realising that adequate consultations with the affected villages were not done.

“After we received some complaints from the affected villages, we decided to stop the whole process and consult afresh. As a responsible government, we could not go through with the process while there were some reservations from citizens.

We will not shy away from admitting a mistake if we made one. Our aim as a government is to ensure that people’s lives improve economically, and any decision to the contrary would be a bad decision,” he said.

He said as such, two teams were already on the ground consulting affected villages afresh, and promised them that a decision informed by their input would be taken at a later stage.

Mr Mzwinila also indicated that at the time of halting the ranches demarcation, government, after going through an assessment report compiled by the task team that did the survey, had decided to demarcate 93 ranches for various purposes.

“Out of the 93 ranches that were earmarked for the area, 42 were to be cattle ranches, 18 community ranches, ten-game ranches and the remaining 23 were to be allocated for small agricultural purposes,” he said.

He said now that the government had taken a decision to halt the whole process, there were now three possible outcomes of what might be done with the land.

“The first possibility will be to continue with demarcations as per the 2012 Presidential Directive, the second possibility will be to allocate the land to the community for ploughing fields and grazing land, and the third possibility will be to leave the land in its current status of a wildlife management area,” he said.

Mr Mzwinila also said the community could also suggest a better possible use.

In his welcome remarks, Kgosi Kgakgamatso Moletsane of Mabutsane had said the villages around the SO2 area were against government’s decision to allocate ranches in the area as they did not have any land for further expansion.

He also said that they were already squeezed by existing ranches in the area to the extent that they had no land for allocation of ploughing fields and grazing and that SO2 was their only hope.

He said that they were aware of challenges of other villages suffocated by private ranches such as Bray and Thankane that have nowhere to expand.

Kgosi Moletsane also indicated that there were people already allocated boreholes and ploughing fields inside the SO2, with rumour being that they would be evicted.

However, the Ngwaketse Land board chairperson, Mr Mosimanegape Mophuting indicated that there were no plans to evict such people as the government recognised their existence inside the area before the decision to demarcate was taken.

Mr Mzwinila’s kgotla address came after Mabutsane residents complained during a kgotla meeting addressed by President, Dr Mokgwetsi Masisi last month that they did not support the government’s decision to demarcate ranches in the area.

Dr Masisi promised that the issue would  be re-considered . 

The affected villages include Mabutsane, Sekoma, Morwamosu, Kokong and Khakhea. ENDS