21 Apr 2022

Land boards and dikgosi should work collaboratively in the administration of land.

Tabling his submissions before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Review of the Constitution at a consultative meeting held in Ncojane on Thursday, resident, Mr Leitshamo Leitshamo said while the mandate of the land boards should be reduced to a largely administrative function, dikgosi on the one hand should be given the upper hand in the actual allocation of land.

Mr Leitshamo explained later in an interview that the two entities working together would enhance land and expedite land delivery process, bringing an end to Batswana’s long-standing grievances over poor service by land boards.

“Land boards should be reduced to an ordinary administrative function; dikgosi should a play paramount role when it comes to land delivery.

When dikgosi are given an upper hand, service delivery will be expedited,” he stated.

While he commended the land boards for their good land management, which he credited to their good academic understanding of what the process entailed, he suggested for mechanisms to be put into place to facilitate dikgosi to be better equipped for the new role that they would be playing.

“We should then upgrade the understanding of our dikgosi on this. If it so happens that dikgosi are not learned, we can appoint for them people that are learned as a council to advise them on the way in which they should deliver land in terms of land management as practised in these modern times,” he elaborated.

Whereas he hailed Botswana’s constitution as still largely relevant even in today’s times, Mr Leitshamo pointed out a number of weaknesses in it that he said should be considered for review.

Among those he cited its failure to provide for direct election of the president, and to recall poor performing councillors and Members of Parliament (MPs), which he said the new constitution should provide for. He also called for establishment of a Constitutional Court and for equal recognition and treatment of all tribes.

Ghanzi South MP Mr Motsamai Motsamai suggested that the law should provide for the chairmanship of local authorities to be campaigned for in the same manner as council and parliamentary seats.

That, he said would improve accountability on the part of the chairpersons of councils.

Mr Motsamai also requested for the responsibility vested in the minister of Local Government and Rural Development to dissolve councils to be shifted to a body that would be set for that specific purpose. He said as presently provided for in the law, councils could be dissolved at whim by the minister, a provision that said was open to abuse.

Mr Tsholetsa Mosetlhane, who represented the cohort of villages comprising Ncojane, Metsimantle, and Metsimantsho requested that the management of stray livestock or Matimela be made the responsibility of the department of animal health and production.

He said the view of the residents of the stated villages was that since the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security was the custodian of livestock and had the registration credentials of farmers, it was better placed to administer the management of stray livestock.

Mr Teko Piet decried the law’s unequal treatment of local tribes, which he said had denied unrecognised tribes their right to draw any pride from being citizens of the country.

“Le pina ya setshaba e rile re lemoga gore ga re yo mo molaong e ne ya nyelela mo melomong ya rona mo ebileng re sa tlhole re e itse,” he said.ENDS