Africa-Press – Botswana. The staggering number of applicants on Kgatleng Land Board waiting list is not a true representation of people who legally qualify for plot allocation, said Land Board secretary, Ms Esther Serati when addressing the board meeting and official launch of Secure Land Title in Mochudi on Monday.
She said the landboard had over 200 000 in its waiting list, but had since realised that 50 000 of those were already disqualified as they already had been allocated a rural plot within Kgatleng or elsewhere in the country.
The situation was worsened by the fact that besides the 50 000 applicants, many people had made multiple applications with various Land Boards.
“The board is currently preparing to engage such people with a view to refine its applications list into a real allocation waiting list,” she said.
Ms Serati said the land board had so far allocated 1088 out of 3280 plots or 33.17 per cent of its target allocations in Oodi and Artesia Sub land boards areas of jurisdiction.
She also told members that the land board continued to negotiate with land owners to secure private land for allocation.
To this end, she said, the land board was working with stakeholders, especially district council to finalise structure plan of a cumulative 3450 plots in places such as Mochudi, Leshibitse, Mmathubudukwane, Kgomodistshaba, Olifantsdrift and Rasesa for allocation.
Ms Serati also told the meeting that Batswana owned and based companies had been appointed to survey demarcated layouts across the country towards the national 100 000 plot allocation target.
She said with the impending start of the 2023/2024 financial year in April, land board would also embark on a series of kgotla meetings and other engagements, to discuss and clarify issues of land allocation and others to Batswana.
The land board had managed to register and approve 67 Secure Land Title requests.
“I must indicate that this was all done at immense expense by the Botswana government for its people- Motswana is now getting this premium title at a highly subsidised price,” she said.
For the longest time, she said Tribal Land, unfairly and unnecessarily so, was relegated to a lesser status amongst the three tenures currently operable in Botswanadespite the fact that it was bigger, most in demand and was occupied by most people.
Ms Serati said with SLT, a title holder had an internationally recognised document, that could be used to access funds for development, used as collateral for accessing funding to develop other businesses. Bakgatla deputy chief, Kgosi Bana Sekai encouraged those issued with SLT not to sell plots and that they should take care of them.
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