09 Dec 2013

The deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Lands and Housing, Mr Maotoanong Sebina says the ministry is experiencing challenges of inadequate budget to service land.

He was responding to comments raised by councillor Tapoloso Mosika who requested the ministry to raise money to service more land for residential purposes in Botswana. He argued that many allocated plots were under-developed because of lack of basic amenities like roads, water and electricity.

Councillor Mosika said it was frustrating as the ministry was allocated a land service budget but was failing Batswana. He urged the ministry to review the issue or to bring back the land service budget to local authorities as was the case so that they could speed up developments in the district.

Meanwhile, Mr Sebina pointed out that servicing of land was expensive and that the existing budget was too little. He said servicing of land was a concern countrywide as the ministry was failing to achieve its goal since 2008. He observed that the ministry was also concerned with the delay to service the layout and informed councillors that efforts were being made to see if they could do minimal service such as bush clearing and grading of internal roads to enhance people’s access to their plots.

He also said his ministry was aware that the land board continued to allocate plots in areas that had not been serviced. Mr Sebina explained that the government took a decision to separate the budget because it was not enough to produce the expected results.  The other responsibility was given to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. He said the government intended to engage the private sector to assist in land servicing.

“We appreciate that there is a delay to develop plots and efforts are being made to account to the needs and aspiration of communities,” he said. ENDS