13 Apr 2022

 

 

Kaduwe illegal residents have been given a month to vacate the area voluntarily or to face forcefully eviction.

The settlement is on the outskirts of Jwaneng and most of the illegal residents work in the diamond mining town.

Maokane Sub-land Board chairperson, Ms Lenah Mahalelo said they had established who the legal residentsand the illegal occupants were.

She said the area was originally solely used as ploughing fields, but that they tolerated residents keeping a few domestic animals as they understood the way of life of the average Motswana.

She said it had been  agreed that they could keep their animals on the other side of the road, known as Bodumatau while ploughing at the other side.

Ms Mahalelo, however, said over the years they noted with concern that many people who did not even own ploughing fields in the area had build shacks and were using the area as their place of abode, with many commuting daily to work in Jwaneng.

 She added that most of the illegal residents came from villages such as Mokhomma and Sese and that the squatters numbered about 86, excluding pupils. Ms Mahalelo also said they engaged the squatters to understand how they came to be there.

One of the legal residents, Mr Dick Matlho, who claims to have settled in the area around 1961, applauded the sub-land board’s decision to evict the squatters.

He said they were suffocating them hence they were happy with the sub land-board’s decision. “These people are eroding our area with a high population. There are no amenities like toilets here and it poses a danger to our cattle as they are likely to be condemned at the markets because of diseases such as measles,” he said.

Mr Matlho also said the illegal settlers had opened shebeens where there were always brawls that sometimes claimed lives.

Kgosi Kelapile Sesanyane, who has been tasked with overseeing the area, said the illegal squatters did not even have the courtesy of establishing relations with those they found in the area. “In our culture when you are newly settled in an area you have to introduce yourself to those you find there so as to know each other, but these squatters just settle and go on with their lives,” he said.

The squatters were also informed of their right to appeal to the main land board within 30 days . ENDS