08 Jun 2022

Tribal Land title holders will now receive for their land that government expropriates, compensation equivalent to its market value. The bonus is that tribal land owners no longer have to pay for private land survey and title deed application, whose fees run into several thousands of Pula, but will now receive complete documents fully paid for by the government.

Minister of Lands and Water Affairs, Dr. Kefentse Mzwinila said this when briefing the media on the re-enacted Tribal Land Act of 2018 on Monday. 

He said the secure land title would bring about a paradigm shift in the way people viewed tribal land, as it was now registrable, which unlocked its economic value and allowed for its use as collateral. The new policy, he said, was part of a raft of changes introduced under the new act.

“We have also relaxed the requirements for land to be of a certain development standard before the transfer can be effected,” he said.

The minister said the new act also allowed citizens to transfer their land to non-citizens without intervention of his office as was the case under the old act.

However, citizens desirous to sell their land would be required to complete notice of publication in the Government Gazette and at least one other newspaper in circulation within Botswana, with the land board management making the decision to transfer. 

Other fundamental changes were that all land titles including customary grants would now be registered at the Deeds Registry, and all land transactions be done in the land information system. This included digitisation of land records, he said.

Dr Mzwinila added the new act complemented Deeds Registry Amended Act Section 5, which introduced the registration of customary land grants as one of the duties of the Registrar of Deeds.

He also said that the deeds registry amended act provided for the survey and registration of the first title, and names of the land board in terms of the certificate of registered land title.

With regard to delays in implementation, Dr Mzwinila said his ministry was bogged down by the need to process assure, as it was important that they started with everything in place.  He added the cornerstone of the news act’s implementation rested upon their ability to issue secure land titles.

For this, they required the LAPCAS system to fine-tune and improve operations as well as digitise land records, he said. “The system will enable us to progress to a point where we can print secure land titles,” he said.

The minister said they already had procured more than a million papers with advanced security features to thwart fraudsters, that would be used in the production of secure land titles under the new dispensation. ends