11 May 2026

Ngwaketse Landboard Chairperson, Mr Bobby Tlhabiwe has encouraged land administrators to actively collaborate with other local authorities to combat the Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) epidemic amid economic difficulties.

Addressing the fourth session of Ngwaketse Landboard in Kanye recently, Mr Tlhabiwe noted that for more than five decades, the Ngwaketse and Rolong regions had been thriving in the beef industry until recently when the FMD crisis shut down the country’s beef markets, demonstrating that it was no longer merely a health concern but also an economic issue impacting the nation’s food security as well.

He dedicated the fourth session to initiating and encouraging Ngwaketse landboards to take action against FMD, promising several strategies to help in the fight against the disease.

“Reject any land application that confines any buffer zone,” urged the landboard chairperson.

Nonetheless, he admitted that the pressure of land unavailability has pushed grazing lands together giving no allowance to distance in grazing areas leading to more livestock using same water points.

He suggested that cluster fencing could help curb the spread of the disease and therefore urged the various Ngwaketse sub-landboards to encourage farmers to engage in it.

He said the boards had platforms to engage their communities when conducting briefings on land use saying it was on such platforms that they should include serious education on FMD awareness. 

Mr Tlhabiwe said engaging them would help create FMD ambassadors nationwide.

The chairperson said it was time to revisit the board’s education awareness plan which engaged school-going children and had not been conducted for a while. 

During its lively days, he said they taught pupils about land use, its importance, and conflicts of land, adding that in the same manner FMD education should be incorporated. 

He said the exercise would be less costly and most beneficial to children in understanding issues of land and boundaries.

Above all, Mr Tlhabiwe said the Sub-landboards should work with Bogosi at their respective areas to make fence cuttings a shameful offence. On the same note, The Ngwaketse Landboard chairperson expressed a concern over the Botswana-South Africa border fence saying it had imposed a high risk to the nation due to vandalism.

In response to the Chairperson’s speech, especially on the fight against FMD, Sub-landboard members decried that Zone 11 was too vast and pleaded with the Ngwaketse landboard to request further demarcation of the zone and also create buffers from Ngwaketse to Mamuno area. ENDS