Africa-Press – Botswana. MP for Shashe West Mr Fidelis Molao has proved that sale of plots was to blame for the long allocation waiting lists and unending complaints from applicants.
He told residents of Matsitama in a kgotla meeting recently that people allocated land at no cost immediately turned around to sell it and returned to the land board with new applications.
As a result there was always a waiting list and complaints, he said.
Quoting a land board report, Mr Molao said 1 100 plots had to date been allocated in Matsitama, which, according to the 2022 census, had a population of 1 502.
That meant nearly all eligible people had been allocated residential plots.
Mr Molao said the figures also indicated that parents of the 429 pupils enrolled at the primary school had plots of their own.
He was responding to a concern raised by Mr Boemo Gakenamotho who had accused Marapong Land Board of being sluggish in the allocation of residential plots saying he had been on the waiting list for years.
Mr Gakenamotho said delays in allocating people land when they were still young and well resourced denied them the opportunity to develop plots.
He said land boards must speed up plot allocations.
Mr Molao advised residents against selling plots for once off payments but rather to rent them out for long term income.
The MP, who is minister of agriculture, also encouraged them to take advantage of government programmes such as integrated farming and agro-tourism.
He informed them that the P3 000 fee for transferring land from one person to another was no longer a requirement in the case of inherited land.
However, the fee and other requirements remained in place for the transfer of land sold between parties, he explained.
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