07 Dec 2022

The Ministry of Lands and Water Affairs has acquired approximately 5 000 hectares of land from Kweneng Tribal Territory to expand the Gaborone boundary.

Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Mabuse Pule said this when responding to a question on behalf of the Minister of Lands and Water Affairs Dr Kefentse Mzwinila in Parliament. Mr Pule said Gaborone was surrounded by villages which limited its lateral growth.

However, he said the growth was not limited to lateral expansion as there were other options to grow a city such as densification and intensification as enshrined in the National Spatial Plan 2036.

He said the Ministry of Lands and Water Affairs was in the process of preparing a master plan to guide developments in the said area. Mr Pule said the plan was estimated to produce 30 000 single-family residential plots which will accommodate a minimum of 90 000 people.

Furthermore, he said the Ministry was finalising the Segoditshane River Corridor Master Plan which was estimated to accommodate 40 000 people, comprising of youth and low-income groups. He said this would be achieved through the proposed 275 high-rise mixed-use plots.

Meanwhile, Mr Pule said the waiting list for residential plots in Gaborone was 21 400, with no pending applications for business plots and other non-residential uses because they were allocated through public tender. He said a total of 19 001 applications for residential use have been pending for more than 20 years. Mr Pule said the ministry stopped accepting applications for residential plots in 2005 due to shortage of land to be allocated.

Additionally, he said the use of allocation of business plots through the waiting list was discontinued in 2000 in favour of the tendering process. He said the last allocated business plots were industrial plots in Old Naledi in 2017. Currently, Mr Pule said the tender evaluation of eight commercial plots was ongoing and expected to be completed by end of February 2023 with the tender attracting 352 bids.

Member of Parliament for Gaborone Bonnington South Mr Christian Greeff had asked the Minister if he was aware that Gaborone city had limited space for growth and efforts in place to acquire additional land for those on the waiting list, especially the youth. He also wanted to know the number of pending residential and business applications for land allocation in Gaborone. ends