Africa-Press – Botswana. Kgatleng Land Board plans to launch a massive P20 million debt collection drive owed in lease arrears, says the land board chairperson, Mr Mothusi Molefi.
The arrears, he said, were owed by companies and individuals who had been allocated business plots or land and were expected to pay annual lease rentals.
Speaking during the land board’s meeting on Monday, he said they would notify debtors with deadline dates to settle their arrears.
He also said they would conduct house-to-house campaigns and business premises for collections.
Furthermore, he said they would do all it took to simplify paying methods as well as to activate social media advertisements that encouraged defaulters to pay and the importance of paying for leases.
“We will go all out to work on the modalities of making people to pay and to keep on following the debtors until they settled their bills,” he stressed.
Mr Molefi also appealed to board members to expedite the 193 appeals and deferred land transfers that were before the land board.
He regretted that they failed to reach the set target of allocating 3 719 plots in the 2023/24 financial year which had been set for land boards to achieve 100 000 plot allocations.
“As at 2023/24 we are at zero. How do we reach this set target by end of April?” he asked.
Mr Molefi also called land board members and staff to manage customer queries and to improve relations with members of the community.
“We should serve our clients with utmost ‘botho’ and always put them first,” he said.
Mr Molefi also briefed land board members on the slow progress in dispensing secure land title certificates to residents across the four Kgatleng sub land boards.
He noted that Artesia Sub Land Board had distributed 665 certificates, Mmathubudukwane zero while Oodi and Mochudi distributed 26 and 63 respectively.
For her part, Kgatleng district commissioner, Ms Kolobetso Sejakgomo encouraged land board members to work on reforms or customer focused strategies that would turn around the tarnished image of the land board.
She said her office was inundated with queries from members of the community who complained about the laisse faire attitude of some officials when serving them.
Kgatleng District Council chairperson, Mr Daniel Molokwe also encouraged land board members to mend their relationship with the community and to liaise with other district authorities about their challenges so that there was support.
He also encouraged them to take feedback as a tool for improvement and not rejection.
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