24 Mar 2022

 Members of Parliament have heard that landboard adjudication officers who are not paid scarce skills allowance do not possess relevant qualifications of Diploma in Law.

Minister of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, Mr Kefentse Mzwinila clarified this in his response to a parliamentary question recently.

Mr Mzwinila told Members of Parliament that the Public Service Management Directive No. 2 of 2008 clearly set out a list of approved scarce skills occupations and other criteria and conditions to be used in the implementation of the attraction and retention policy.

He said part C of the Directive  required that to be eligible for scarce skills allowance, officers must possess relevant and appropriate qualifications and performing scarce skill duties.

He also explained that physical planners were not placed at the landboards, but at the council because at the district level, the function had been delegated to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.

“That notwithstanding, the planners still play their role in the land delivery process as they are the ones who design and produce the layouts for surveying and subsequently allocation.

It, however, has to be emphasised that where there is cooperation between the council secretary and the board secretary, the functions of the physical planner are performed effectively,” he added.

Further, he indicated that to qualify as a conveyancing officer, a minimum qualification of Diploma in Law was required while land adjudication officers possessed a minimum qualification of Diploma in Land Management.

He added that conveyancing officers were paid at government C4/3 scale with a scarce skills allowance of 25 per cent, adding that they were different from land adjudication officers because they possessed relevant and appropriate qualifications and performed duties that fell under scarce skills occupations.

Further, Minister Mzwinila told Members of Parliament that the Tribal Land Act would commence on April 1, adding, ‘the commencement of the new Act was delayed because the accompanying regulations and alignment with the other related Acts was still being done’.  

The MPs also heard that the Botswana Land Policy of 2019 required that land be efficiently planned and surveyed before allocation to ensure orderly, efficient, cost effective and sustainable land development.

He said the practice where individuals identified in-fills or pockets of spaces for themselves within built up areas had been stopped.

“Like any other land use, an open space is a type of use that is purposely planned for, during the preparation of a layout plan.

During the allocation of plots, these spaces are allocated to councils to develop for use as rest places and public parks.

Where it is deemed that there has been an over provision of open spaces, some of the open spaces are re-designated to residential use and planned accordingly and allocated to applicants by the landboards following the application waiting list.”  

He added that compensation for people who were relocated plots by government to give way for developments were done in line with the Tribal Land Act.

“The Act requires that they be compensated for the loss of right and the improvements on the land.

The ministry developed the compensation guidelines to be used when determining the appropriate compensation.”

Legislators were also told that compensation rates were last reviewed in 2011.

Minister Mzwinila explained that the review of the compensation guidelines included the review of the rates for loss of rights (land) and the rates for the improvements effected on the land.  

However, he said in 2020 the ministry conducted research on the current rate and its criteria against the current construction cost.  

“The rates will no longer be increased, but the new Tribal Land Act, which introduces compensation at market rate, will be employed upon its commencement,” he said.

On rentals for livestock ranches, Mr Mzwinila said those had been determined by Cabinet as per Presidential Directive CAB 10(B)/2016 for use in both State Land and Tribal Land, adding that for other agricultural uses, the land authority determined the rentals.

“As indicated, the rates are not the same across the landboards.  

Each landboard has all along been determining its own rates.  

However, the ministry has embarked on an exercise to standardise the rates across the landboards,” he said.

MP for Serowe South, Mr Leepetswe Lesedi had asked the minister to explain why landboard adjudication officers who did work that attracteds scarce skills were not paid scarce skills allowance.

Mr Lesedi also wanted to know when the new Tribal Land Policy would be implemented.

He also asked the minister to explain why, in an effort to expedite service delivery, physical planners were not placed at landboards instead of councils.

The MP further wanted to know what qualified one as a conveyancing officer, how they were paid and how they were different from land adjudication officers who did investigations and made recommendations to the landboard.

The minister was also to explain why government, to date, did not grant citizens the leeway to identify unused open spaces and apply for them for both residential and business use.

Mr Lesedi further wanted the minister to outline details of the Land Board Compensation Policy for people who were relocated by government to give way for developments as well as  who determined it.

Again, he wanted to know when the Land Board Compensation Policy was last reviewed and when the rates would be increased as well as what determined the rates for lease rentals in agricultural, tribal and state land.

He also wanted to know if rates were the same across all landboards for economic activities such as dairy and small stock farming. ENDS