SEEKING ANSWERS: Kgatleng landowners
About 100 frustrated Kgatleng landowners on Tuesday delivered a petition on the change of agriculture land use to the office of the president.
On Monday, they reported some employees of the Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, and Kgatleng Landboard to the police for violation of the penal code.
According to Gilbert Sesinyi who spoke on behalf of the petitioners, President Masisi had issued a directive in 2019 to allow Batswana to change the use of their agricultural land into non-agricultural use.
He said last year October the Director of the Department of Town and Country Planning, Eunice Mmono issued an advisory note on suspension of agricultural land use zone guidelines.
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ng Council is violating the Town and Country Planning Act that that regulates their work and is seeking consent from Land Board when they are the mandated authority.
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he above is in violation of schedule 2 of section 19(4) of the Town and Country Planning Act, also suspends indefinitely the provisions of section 22 of the tribal land act, it is a complete violation of the Presidential directive Cab 14A and the guidelines amending the Development Control Code at section 5(4), 6(2) and Section 8.
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he Kgatleng Land Board under the pretext that Oodi sub land board has no authority to preside and authorize change of land use have since suspended further land developments in Kgatleng of Agricultural land on that account. Whereas the Revised Botswana Land Policy of October 2019 at section 31 clearly states ……’Amongst the recommendations accepted with modifications was that the land board should remain corporate bodies responsible for land administration and that
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ober 2020 as attached to All Councils. (Abuse of office, Penal Code section 104 and Neglect of official duty, Penal Code section 132)
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xecuting functions within a Planning Area over which the Land Board has no jurisdiction in terms of the law. (Disobedience of Statutory Authority, Penal Code section 132) and unreasonable breach of Service Level Agreements.
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ow is a chronology of events leading to this violation of the laws of the Republic of Botswana by members of the Kgatleng Land Board instigated by The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Housing, Water and Sanitation Services (Mrs Bonolo. E. Khumotaka) and the Director at the Department of Town and Regional Planning (Ms Eunice Mmono).
Botswana Guardian
Dikarabo Ramadubu - BG reporter
Friday, 12 March 2021
Some residents have been found to abuse the citizen empowerment land dispensation and in the process compromise the food security potential of the eastern corridor.
Batswana may optimally utilise land they possess by introducing other economic empowering activities on up to 50 percent of their agricultural land. This was introduced by President Dr. Mokgweetsi Masisi in 2018 to empower citizens with the most precious commodity that they have- land. But, sadly some Batswana are subdividing their land into small plots while others sub divide their fields (masimo) into the minimum requirement of 1ha portions and transfer them with the intention of benefiting more from the said fields especially where Land Boards have provision for in-kind compensation.