24 Nov 2019

Office of the Receiver has encouraged Tawana Land Board management to continue keeping a closer eye on its staff members to ensure that there was minimal or zero corrupt practices.

Addressing Tawana Land Board staff, an official from the office, Mr Bafi Nlanda said land board staff was prone to acts of corruption such as illegal allocation to families and friends and illegal selling of plots.

Therefore, Mr Nlanda said they saw it fit to enlighten corruption prone departments or stakeholders such as land boards on the mandate of the Office of the Receiver and how it operated. 

He said so far in Francistown alone, the Receiver had seized 34 houses that were acquired illegally.

He said there was need for robust public education about the mandate of the office because there were incidents where children built their parents houses with stolen money, while in that case, parents could lose plots they legally acquired or pay an amount assessed as benefit derived from proceeds of crime.

Mr Nlanda noted that the Receiver was mandated to preserve the value of property in its possession in respect of a court order made under the Act or under any written law.

“This means that the office receives a court order directing the Receiver to take over the management of property and manage it in accordance with the provisions of the Act.

The Receiver was appointed in 2017 and had already been served with several court orders to take over the management of property that had been restrained by court on suspicion that the property was proceeds or instruments of crime,” he said.

This property, Mr Nlanda said, included plots, residential and industrial buildings, vehicles, furniture, computers and money.

He further noted that when the Receiver had been ordered to take over the management of the property, ‘he manages the property from the time the property is restrained by the court until it is forfeited to the state’.

Mr Nlanda said once the property had been forfeited to the state, ownership of the property vests on government, and the Receiver would hand over the property to government so that it could be registered in the register of government assets and be distributed by government in accordance with the rules governing the distribution of government assets within government.

Meanwhile, Tawana Land Board chairperson, Mr Emmanuel Dube said his staff was not corrupt and as management they would continue keeping an eye on the employees.

He also commended the Receiver for the enlightenment of the office’s operations. ends