02 Dec 2024

Out of the nine vacant positions of land board members across the country, Tawana Land Board has the overall highest vacancy of six positions against an establishment of 44, Minister of Lands and Agriculture, Dr Micus Chimbombi has said.

The minister who was responding to a question from Maun East Member of Parliament, Mr Goretetse Kekgonegile on November 29, said Tawana Land Board was followed by Ngwato Land Board with two vacant positions against an establishment of 98 members and Ngwaketse Land Board with one against an establishment of 44 members.

He said there were 342 positions for members of the land boards, which consisted of eight members for each of the 12 main land boards and six members for each of the 41 subordinate land boards.

He said that effective date of the current board was November 6, 2023 and their term in office would expire November 5, 2025.

Dr Chimbombi said in terms of the operations and deliberations, a land board quorum was formed by a simple majority, adding that for subordinate land board, four members constituted a quorum while five members constituted a quorum at main land board.

He said where the constituted members were equal to a quorum, in a case where one of the members was for any reason not able to participate in the proceedings, the business of the land board could not proceed, adding that this risk was high at Maun and Nokaneng sub land boards.

The minister further explained that the reasons for vacancies differed across the structures and they ranged from non-completion of the appointment processes, resignation and non-acceptance of the offers of those who were successful in the selection process.

Dr Chimbombi further said he intended to fill the vacancies by the end of December and that the appointment procedure for land board and subordinate land board membership was prescribed by Regulation Five of the Tribal Regulations of 2022.

The minister further said allocation of plots depended on the availability of plots,  adding that the process entailed planning, land acquisition, detailing, surveying and registration of the land diagrams, adding that in order to speed up the delivery of plots, government intended to engage the private sector to speed up the land delivery process.

The minister also said Maun Sub-land board currently had a backlog of 346 applications for registration of inheritance.

He attributed the number to the late commencement of the sub-land board in May as it was not initially adequately constituted to form a quorum and noted that it had since met November 11 to 29 and considered 82 applications.

Dr Chimbombi further told Parliament that out of 912 people interviewed for plot allocations in Makalamabedi in March 2024, 10 of them were not shown their plot beacons and they had since been invited to be shown their beacons.

He said in Chanoga, all of the 613 people allocated plots were shown their beacons.

As for Phuduhudu settlement, he said there had not been any planned trips for plot allocations as there were no readily available plots for allocation.

Furthermore, he stated that Tawana Land Board was supposed to attend kgotla meetings addressed by area MP through its sub-land boards. 

Mr Kekgonegile had wanted to know which land boards were not fully operational or without full complement of members, reasons for the vacancies, when they would be filled, the number of inheritance plots in Maun Sub-land board as well as why Tawana Land board did not attend kgotla meetings addressed by member of parliament. Ends