28 Aug 2023

Chobe Land Board is owed over P4 million in lease arrears. 

Speaking at a stakeholders workshop in Kasane recently, Chobe Land Board chairperson, Mr Johane Chenjekwa, said the arrears were from commercial, industrial and civic community plots in the entire district. 

He indicated that the debts affected the operations of the land board to deliver services optimally. 

He said there were 800 plots awaiting to be surveyed. 

Mr Chenjekwa said it would be ideal for debtors to pay outstanding bills so that those funds were channeled into other projects. 

He said the Kasane/Kazungula redevelopment project was in motion with the land board having allocated some facilities bordering the main road from the Chobe Safari Lodge to the Kazungula Bridge. 

He said the road was planned to be expanded into a dual carriage for safety and convenience to position Kasane as a cosmopolitan tourism hub. 

He said the Kasane/Kazungula redevelopment project intended to give Kasane a facelift to be a competitive destination in the region. 

“At the moment we see tourists coming to Kasane for day trips to go into the Chobe National Park then spend the night in Victoria Falls or Livingstone because of their diverse entertainment and fun activities and we want to transform Kasane by creating land for diverse products and facilities,” he said. 

Mr Chenjekwa explained that the Botswana Prison Service had been allocated 50 hectares of land in Pandamatenga to relocate the prison to pave way for the redevelopment project. 

This was an opportunity for prisons department to convert part of the land in Pandamatenga for agricultural purposes and produce food for prisons in Botswana. Chobe Land Board also allocated the Special Support Group land in Kazungula to set up a camp. The education centre and CITF are some of the agencies that have already been allocated land elsewhere. 

Mr Chenjekwa said the Chobe Land Board would allocate 4 000 residential plots during the 2023/24 financial year. 

Some dikgosi the Chobe District suggested that land boards should reject land transfer applications, especially among the youth, but Mr Chenjekwa said land boards could not deny land owners the chance to sell their land.. 

He said it was every Motswana’s right to apply for and own land anywhere in Botswana. 

Therefore land boards have no right to reject applications from any Motswana based on the fact that they were not domicile in a particular area, where they tendered an application. ENDs