15 Sep 2013

Land Tribunal president, Mr Phetsolo Nare, says the Land Tribunal Act is in the process of being reviewed following the amendment of the Town and Country Planning Act of 2012.

In an interview, Mr Nare said the Town and Country Planning Act had been put before Ntlo ya Dikgosi and would be discussed in Parliament after passing through Ntlo ya Dikgosi. As per the amended act, he said, matters pertaining to planning were referred to the land tribunal yet the land tribunal was not empowered to handle such matters, adding that his court had no urgency to attend to those.

He said planning issues were very common on state land but the land tribunal was only restricted to communal land. As as a result , such matters were piling up awaiting the amendment of the tribunal act.

 “We are considering establishing additional land tribunals because the town and country act has been amended and the two land tribunals in existence are not enough to deal with overwhelming numbers of cases,” he said.

However, he said government was aware of this and something was being done to address the problem. The land tribunal is a court of law whose mandate is adjudication on appeals against and enforcement of land boards’ decision on the use of tribal land. Furthermore, Mr Nare said land issues were on the rise because of a high demand for land, which was gradually becoming scarce.

He said his office, which covers areas under the jurisdiction of five land boards, namely Ngwato, Tati, Chobe, Tawana and Gantsi land boards was faced with unending disputes relating to water rights, illegal land occupation and allocation of residential and industrial plots.

He said the land tribunal took at least 12 months to deal with cases of which he said few were appealed to the High Court. “We are a friendly court. It is either we are doing a good job or litigants get satisfied with our judgment because we deliver a comprehensive judgment where we give detailed information,' he said.

He said the disputes that the land tribunal dealt with were not necessarily on land law but on administrative law, adding that his court discharges judicial functions.

The land tribunal was presided over by a panel of three members consisting of the president and two members who are eminent experts on land related matters. Ends