04 Nov 2013

Public sector performance is crucial for the wider economic and social wellbeing of Batswana.

President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama said this during the State-of-the-Nation Address in Gaborone, November 4.

The President said it was for that reason that he and the cabinet had made a point of meeting with public servants at the local level to gain better insight into their concerns and the challenges they faced in delivering quality services.

He said a number of interventions which arose from those interactions were being implemented. The President said in addition, a consultancy was carried out to more broadly examine ways to improve conditions of public service employees.

He said all organs of government had been instructed to put in place targeted interventions to address any deficiencies in the efficient delivery of quality service.

President Khama said the Directorate of Public Service Management had also been restructured for improved policy direction and monitoring, while the Public Service College had broadened its leadership and training programmes.

He further said he was pleased that members of cabinet and public servants continued to bring dignity to the lives of the less fortunate in the country, by devoting a day out of each month to community.

These, he said range from building and rehabilitating shelters, establishing community gardens and donations of basic necessities to individuals and institutions as well as clean up campaigns.

He said over the past 12 months, over 250 such projects had been undertaken covering all districts. On the issue of land, President Khama said in order to facilitate the Economic Diversification Drive (EDD), government continues to reserve agricultural land and industrial plots for allocation to domestic and foreign investors.

Government, he said, has completed guidelines on Public Private Partnerships in support of the Land Servicing Policy to leverage on the private sector resources to complement public resources and fast track the current Land Servicing programme.

He said the government was in the process of servicing Palapye and Metsimotlhabe Block 4 where 5177 serviced plots are expected to be delivered by the end of 2014/15 financial year.

Furthermore, the President noted that planning was on-going for the servicing of another 5559 plots at Ramotswa, Kasane and Kgatleng.  As of March 2013, a total of 3115 hectares of land was being acquired for expansion within 11 different land board jurisdictions, he said.

In order to have correct information on land rights and parcels, Khama said government continued to implement a land management project called Land Administration, Procedures, Capacity Building and Systems (LAPCAS).

The project entails the survey and registration of all land parcels in the country while in the case of the land boards; the opening of 769,905 individual plot files has been completed to facilitate lands records management, he said.

The President highlighted that surveying and capturing of ownership details for plots have been completed for 106,342 plots in 80 villages across the country and it is expected that plot ownership and location details of 85% of plots in the country will be completed by 2016.

The President also said a project on the preservation of deeds, intended to create a centre where all information on land and its utilization would be  stored and accessible to both Government and the general public was also ongoing,

As of the beginning of October 2013, he said, a total of 254 401 title deeds had been captured. On a related matter, President Khama said government would present a bill to set up the Land Tribunal through a new Land Tribunal Act, detaching it from the Tribal Land Act.

The bill would seek to widen the jurisdiction of the Land Tribunal to enable it to also hear all planning appeals, said President Khama. Ends