09 Jun 2024

President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi will June 11 allocate the 100 000^th residential plot in Kanye to mark the culmination of a two-year process to allocate the plots.

In an interview, Minister of Lands and Water Affairs, Dr Kefentse Mzwinila said land boards across the country had already allocated 99 500 plots and were on course to hit the 100 000 target.

Dr Mzwinila said while the target was a mammoth undertaking given the limited resources, including personnel at the ministry’s disposal, they were compelled to do their best in line with the Transformation Agenda and the Reset and Reclaim Agenda.

“Within the Transformation Agenda for instance, there is land management transformation which speaks to ensuring that land generates wealth for Batswana. This land management transformation has raised the value of land in tribal land, bringing it up to par with that of land in state and freehold land,” he said, adding that harmonising the value of land of the three land tenure systems was done for the benefit of ordinary citizens.

Minister Mzwinila said their achievement was a remarkable feat, adding that despite the process requiring resources as well as the input of several stakeholders such as deeds registry, the Department of Surveys and Mapping, and that of town and country planning a marked increase was registered in the rate at which plots were being allocated.

“With the scant resources at our disposal, we were able to raise by about 500 per cent the volume of plot allocation. Usually we would allocate about 8 630 (residential) plots each year, but now we allocate around 50 000 plots annually,” he said.

Dr Mzwinila commended all the 53 land boards, comprising 12 main land boards and 41 subordinate land boards, for having ensured the successful delivery of the exercise.

Ngwaketse Land Board chairperson, Mr Bobby Tlhabiwe said he was confident that they would reach the 21 974 target that the ministry had set for them, having to date allocated over 17 000 plots as part of the 100 000 plot allocation exercise.

“We have allocated well over 17 000 plots and allocations are ongoing through our sub-land boards as we speak. Kanye, Mabutsane, Maokane Mmathethe sub land boards are busy allocating plots and this gives us confidence that we will indeed reach our target,” he said, noting that Moshupa Sub-land Board was in Manyana recently allocating plots.

Mr Tlhabiwe said one of the challenges that kept cropping up was that of applicants who were ineligible for allocation due to them having previously been allocated land, observing that in the recent allocations in Manyana where 2 100 plots were available, some applicants could not be allocated land for the stated reasons.

The chairperson assured those within the jurisdiction of Ngwaketse Land Board that the land authority and the rest of the land boards would not slack off after completing the assignment, but would continue the drive to ensure timely access to land by citizens. Ends