26 Nov 2023

The rate at which Batswana are selling their residential plots is a major concern, and the new law that permits the transfer of undeveloped plots is not helping, says Ngwato Land Board acting secretary, Mr Ephraim Mosimanyana.

Addressing a press conference in Francistown recently, he said the issue had caused a massive rise in the number of plots sold, noting that over 3 500 plots were sold from April to date.

He said most of those selling their plots were the youth and he urged them to view land as an asset and refrain from selling it.

Mr Mosimanyana also urged Batswana who were allocated business plots in 1973 to visit their offices for lease renewals as 50 years of their use had elapsed.

Mr Mosimanyana said the land board had updated the status of deceased persons found in the waiting list, and that they were currently passing resolutions on the applicants who had been allocated residential plots by the land board, noting that they numbered over 132 000.

He noted that more than 2 700 applicants had submitted written responses and were eligible for hearing by the land board. 

He said a decision had been taken to target major villages such as Serowe, Palapye, Mahalapye, Letlhakane and Tonota as high impact areas for the production of secure land titles as they were developing fast and business-orientated.

He said land acquisition by the land board was ongoing and that the number of allocated plots stood at over 45 per cent and that most of the plots had been surveyed and were at various stages of approval.

Mr Mosimanyana explained that the cleaning exercise was done by deleting all rejected applications and that over 6 700 deceased people had been removed from the list.

Giving welcome remarks earlier, Ngwato Land Board principal land surveyor, Mr Balapi Marumo said their mandate was to ensure that the largest land board in the country was making progress. 

He also said they wanted to ensure that citizens made the right decisions concerning land. 

He added that it was their responsibility to ensure that Batswana were constantly engaged and given feedback. Ends