04 Aug 2022

A land servicing exercise in 2012 at Gerald Estates in Francistown produced 4 722 plots of different uses.

Minister of Lands and Water Affairs, Dr Kefentse Mzwinila said 4 177 were residential plots and 545 non-residential.

He noted that allocation started immediately after servicing with 2 851 residential plots under the state land allocation policy and 1 055 for Self Help Housing Agency (SHHA).

“The 2012 allocation exhausted the waiting list for complete allocation under the state land allocation policy for Francistown, and a decision was taken to offer the balance of the plots and those that were realised through non-acceptable offers to applicants from other urban areas in April of 2021 to address the backlog of applications across the country,” said the minister.

He said 892 residential plots were offered and only 260 applicants responded positively to the offers. 

He said the balance of 632 plots were being offered with the next batch of applicants.

“In addition to the 892 plots, 160 plots were offered to Francistown SHHA beneficiaries in June 2020 by converting the middle-income upper plots to SHHA categories, and 141 allocated to Botswana Housing Corporation in June 2020,” said the minister.

Dr Mzwinila also said some commercial plots were awarded in 2013. 

He added that seven industrial plots were awarded in December 2019 while 15 civic and community plots were allocated in March 2021. 

He further said allocation of the remaining commercial plots was ongoing through invitation to tender.

“Tender evaluation is ongoing for 90 industrial plots while evaluation of the 80 small commercial plots is expected to commence in August 2022,” said the minister.

He said the cost of land servicing for Gerald Estates Block 5 was over P237 million while for Block 6 it was about P180 million.

Francistown West MP, Mr Ignatius Moswaane had asked the minister to state when they intended to allocate plots at Gerald Estates which were serviced in 2012. Enda