03 Jul 2022

Some residents of Kgalagadi South Sub-district have called for annulment of Freehold farms land provision. 

Making their submissions before the Presidential Commission of Inquiry n the Review of the Constitution in Tsabong recently most of the residents said there was need to design land policies that catered for current and future development, and the freehold land policy worked against that. 

Also, they said, the regimen went against the spirit of equitable land distribution.

Thus, they called for review of the freehold farm land regimen to guaranteed both space for development as well as equitable land rights.

Tsabong resident, Mr Hoteit Samson said the freehold farm regimen must be cancelled, and existing freehold farms be subdivided for allocation to people. 

He said freehold land was allocated to white settlers in the past for commercial livestock farming, some of whom were foreign nationals, who held much as 30x30 km of land right, while native Batswana had no land.

He gave the example of Bray community who had no land land of their own. 

“Batswana ba ba ko Bray are landlocked in their own country. Ba hudisetsa mo passage but the minority of people of white descent reside in freehold farms while Batswana have no farms,” he said. 

He said the remaining land should be strictly allocated to Batswana.

Mr Samson also called for repeal of the Land board Act and replace land boards with dikgosi.

He reasoned that such membership allowed for political interference in land allocations where land was subjectively distributed. 

“The Landboard membership must be abolished because it causes conflicts. Ga e sa tlhole e le boloko jole jwa bogologolo jo re neng re bo itse,” he said. Ends