01 Apr 2014

A handful of Tonota residents who attended the consultative meeting for the Tonota-Shashe Development Plan on March 31 have raised concerns regarding the charges that will be levied on people who wanted to change their land use.

Addressing residents on the plan which came into effect on April 1, Tonota Sub-district Council principal physical planner, Mr Lesley Moabankwe said the Tonota –Shashe development plan for 2000-2024 had been in use although it was not gazetted.

Mr Moabankwe added that it was in October last year that the minister approved the plan; hence it was gazetted to be fully implemented in the new financial year.

He highlighted that the plan was going to affect Tonota and its surrounding villages of Leomboko, Semotswane, Mandunyane and Shashe Bridge.

 Mr Moabankwe stated that this therefore meant that these villages were now planning areas and all the developments which would be taking place would be done according to the Town and Country Planning Act.

He noted that before, some home owners took their house plans to the council for approval while some opted to start construction without consulting the council inspectors regarding their buildings. 

As of now, he said that every plan either for residential or industrial development, would have to be approved  at the council first while at the same time there would be inspections at every stage of construction.

He, nonetheless, informed them that there was also going to be changes on some things which have been handled by the land board such as change of land use, sub division and plot consolidation which in the plan would now be handled by the council.

On other issues, he further informed them that there would be charges levied, noting that for changing land use it would cost P350.00 for residential plots while for non-residential plots the fee would be P1 050.

 Plot consolidation and sub division, he said, were going to cost P275 and P875 for residential and non-residential plots respectively.

 Regularising residential plots, he said was going to cost P725.00 while non-residential plot would cost P2 175.

Despite welcoming the developments in their village, residents queried the charges. 

Kgosi Dialwa Moalosi of More ward said that while government was calling for families to give or share land with their children, the charges were going to be a hindrance in this regard. 

He cited that most of the fields were owned by the elderly who do not have an income and charging sub division of land P875.00 and change of use P1050.00 was going to be expensive for many. Ends