05 Mar 2026

The Ministry of Lands and Agriculture is poised to deliver a new era of tribal land administration aimed at addressing the prolonged retention of land board members. 

Answering a parliamentary question on Wednesday, acting minister, Dr Edwin Dikoloti said the Tribal Land Act of 2018 allowed for land board members to hold office for three years as well as multiple re-appointments. 

Dr Dikoloti told Parliament that the provision, did not specify the maximum number of terms a member can serve. 

To that end, he said there were six members out of a total of 12 within the Jwaneng-Mabutsane constituency, at Maokane and Mabutsane sub land boards, who had served for more than two terms. 

Nonetheless, he said while the decision to re-appoint members of the land board was grounded on the need for continuity and preservation of institutional memory, there was need to set a clear time limit as there were inherent risks of retaining the same members for a prolonged period of time in a board.

“Therefore, the above scenario reinforces the need for the third generation of tribal land administration, which my ministry is intentional in delivering to Batswana,” he said. 

MP for Jwaneng-Mabutsane, Mr Omphemetse Kwapa, had asked the minister to explain why certain members were being retained beyond two terms and to provide the legal basis for the extensions. ENDS