21 Feb 2023

Government is committed to ensure that Batswana realise the importance of land ownership and its role towards economy emancipation.

Debating the 2023/2024 budget proposals on Monday, Minister of Lands and Water Affairs, Dr Kefentse Mzwinila said it was to that effect that government recently embarked on printing secure land titles as a means of empowering Batswana to realise land economic value.

“I need to highlight that we are on the process of printing over a million land titles to economically empower Batswana to release the value of their land,” Dr Mzwinila said. He indicated that tribal land previously had minimal economic value, hence the recent amendment of the Tribal Land Act and the Deeds Registry Acts which ensured that all Batswana occupying tribal land realised the economic value of land ownership.

“During land relocation, Batswana used to be compensated for the developments on that land but not for the land value since land was under the landboard custody, thus the tribal land economic value was inexistent,” he said. 

He added that the amendment of the Tribal land Act would make the value of tribal land to be at par with that of state and freehold lands. 

The amendments, he said would also ensure that Batswana protected their land and reduced unnecessary transfers.

Again, he indicated that land allocation was a consumptive unit as most of the developments were always accompanied by land servicing costs. The minister further commended the increase in the development budget.

The amount of the development budget allocation, he said was evidence that government intended to invest on infrastructure development and in turn create employment. “The correlation between an increase in the development budget will automatically translate to a surge in infrastructure development which requires an increase in land allocation which would economically empower the citizens,” he added.

Furthermore, he said land management also facilitated infrastructure development.

Additionally, Dr Mzwinila noted that job creation depended on the three parameters of economic diversification, import substation and export promotion.

“Efforts are being made to promote economic diversification in reference to value chain development as witnessed in the mineral beneficiation drive, while strides have also been made on import substitution especially in the agriculture sector promote import substation through the ban on some vegetable importation,” he said.

For his part, Tati West Member of Parliament, Mr Simon Moabi said the development budget as the economic growth driver should provide opportunities for employment creation.

Mr Moabi also argued that lack of capacity to deliver project needed critical review as government aimed to empower citizen-owned companies. 

The MP further decried delays in paying local companies that had been awarded government development projects, something he said defeated the efforts to economically empower local businesses.

On  other issues, Mr Moabi called for the construction of a satellite police station at Mbalambi village in an effort to address cross-border cattle rustling and other criminal acts along the Botswana-Zimbabwe border.

Contributing to the debate, Selebi Phikwe East MP, Mr Kgoberego Nkawana implored government to translate the budgeting process and make it relatable to an ordinary citizen. 

Mr Nkawana also called for a clear sectoral plan by government, which devoted real resources to increasing local participation up and down the diamond value chain, along with appropriate policies to strengthen domestic capacities.

Further, he urged government to also explore possibilities around processing industrial diamonds locally rather than investing solely on cutting and polishing jewellery.

Mahalapye East MP , Mr Yandani Boko challenged government to review the current education policies to align them with the drive to transform the country from a resource driven economy to a highly diversified knowledge based economy.

Mr Boko expressed concern about primary school pupils in his constituency who travelled long distances to school while some continued to be taught under dreadful conditions and in overcrowded classrooms.

However, he said he was hopeful that the bulk of the infrastructure development budget would be channelled towards schools infrastructure development. ends