06 May 2021

 Kgosi Kgosi of Kutamogoree says delays in allocation of ploughing fields on the northern side of the village has caused conflict in the community. 

 In his remarks at a leadership meeting with Member of Parliament for the area, Mr Polson Majaga on Wednesday, Kgosi Kgosi said since 2011, there had been an issue of land allocation at an area where some farmers ploughed while others had boreholes and reared livestock. 

He said some felt it was not appropriate to allocate ploughing fields in the area because since it was a grazing area with boreholes. 

However, he said after intervention of the Ngwato Land Board, which was tasked by the ministry to resolve the matter, it was agreed in 2015, that fields be allocated only to farmers who were already there not the ones who came into the area immediately after the resolution was taken. 

Kgosi Kgosi, however, said since then, nothing had happened, something that caused friction in the community with some farmers thinking that he was against the allocation. 

In addition, he stated that some farmers had been ploughing in the area and there was a special arrangement to have them benefiting from the Integrated Support Programme for Arable Agricultural Development (ISPAAD). 

He said that had since stopped as the Savigram, authorising their payments was way overdue and Marapong Sub-land Board had refused to assist them. 

 Kgosi Kgosi thus appealed to the sub-land board to act swiftly and assess, with the help of bogosi, to properly allocate fields and issue certificates to deserving farmers, adding that a land certificate for the fields was prerequisite to process payments for ISPAAD. 

 Responding to the matter, a member of Marapong Sub-land Board, Mr Themba Botsang said the land board had not had land surveyors for a long time, hence the delay. 

Mr Botsang, however, stated that there was now a surveyor, though they shared him with Nata Sub-land Board, saying they were hopeful that the matter would be attended  to before end of the year. 

Meanwhile, MP Majaga suggested that because they knew one another well, the concerned farmers should list all their names and send it to the sub-land board for a new letter authorising payment to be written, specifically for the deserving farmers not trespassers. ends