Kweneng land troubles old as time
Mompati Tlhankane | Monday June 26, 2023 06:00
It is infuriating for some that to this day, the Kweneng Land Board still grapples with issues of land. Currently, there is manifestation of corruption at the Land Board and it has at times raised doubts about the leaders’ effective ways of addressing the matter. Even the current Kweneng Land Board chairperson, Kgang Kgang has publicly revealed that not only is corruption rocking the Kweneng Land Board but it is perpetrated by figures in authority, including ministers, councillors and lawyers.
Early 90s – Kgabo Commission
The Kgabo Report (1991) was the first of several to expose wrongdoings by government leaders in land issues in Kweneng. The Kgabo Land Commission was appointed by the late former President Sir Ketumile Masire to investigate allegations of corruption in land allocation in Gaborone and the surrounding areas, among others. The Commission focused on the land problems in Mogoditshane and other peri-urban villages. It later released a bombshell when it heavily implicated then vice president, the late Peter Mmusi and senior minister Daniel Kwelagobe. The Commission was resolute that Kwelagobe had illegally obtained some land at Nkoyaphiri while Mmusi was caught up for allegedly aiding Kwelagobe. The political worlds of both Mmusi and Kwelagobe collapsed around them and the duo was forced to resign their Cabinet positions. Subsequently, they took the matters to the High Court to clear their names and in the end the court absolved them from any wrongdoing.
Nkate and rampant
Mogoditshane squatters
Although the court nullified the Mmusi and Kwelagobe implications in the Kgabo report, these chains of events did not stop improper land dealings in Mogoditshane and the surrounding areas. Speaking of Mogoditshane, currently the most populated village in Botswana, this area has always been the Kweneng Land Board’s hot spot especially when it comes to squatters. As the Minister of Lands and Housing, former legislator Jacob Nkate gained notoriety for tearing down squatter camps in Mogoditshane, the city’s periphery. It was during this period that the bulldozer came to be known as the ‘yellow monster’. The yellow monster took away people’s places of abode. Land is a lifetime investment and the ‘yellow monster’ took away whatever people had owned. During that time there was no time to negotiate with squatters. Nkate, who presided over the demolitions as Lands minister, simply unleashed the monster on squatter camps.
2008 Presidential pardon
According to the presidential pardon of 2008, former president Ian Khama then directed that residents of the disputed areas, including Tsolamosese and Mogoditshane, pay the Kweneng Land Board not more than P10,000 and undertake substantive ownership of the land equipped with land title certificates. Khama, through the presidential pardon, absolved the squatters of Gaborone and surrounding areas from demolition of their presumed unlawful residence. It was recommended that some residents pay the Land Board P5,000 and others P10,000, depending on their individual cases, in order to comply with the absolution. After that there were various reports that the Mogoditshane Sub Land Board, which falls under Kweneng Land Board, was refusing to accept the fee from the affected residents.
Compensation in kind saga
In 2019, the Mogoditshane Sub Land Board announced that when one surrenders their ploughing field, he or she would get six residential plots as compensation. This was coined into a policy called Compensation-In-Kind and while residents ululated at the development, a trend of land grabbing emerged within the system and the policy was later suspended. The policy allegedly provided a loophole for some corrupt Land Board officers to acquire fields through dubious means to get compensation in kind. There was an influx of people buying ploughing fields at around P100,000 a hectare only to later sell their six residential plots for around P250,000 each. Furthermore, there was also a shocking revelation to the effect that 38 Mogoditshane Sub Land Board employees amassed 800 plots dubiously. Kgang acknowledged then that they were aware of the Mogoditshane Sub Land Board’s nefarious corruption acts.
“Those 38 employees wanted to get compensation from us and some have since been fired. There are 800 plots between them which we are going to confiscate. It is sad because they worked with some board members. They bought fields so that they can abuse this model,” he emphasised.
Kgang pointed out that they managed to clean their office by firing 38 of their employees who benefited from the policy. He was quick to indicate that the Compensation-In-Kind Policy was stopped because it was unlawful. To bring perpetrators of the controversial Compensation-In-Kind Policy to account, early this year, the Kweneng Land Board revealed that they have started questioning people who were allegedly abusing the model. One person was given 117 plots while another was given 28 hectares from a field.
According to Kgang, people who were allegedly involved include councillors, judges, lawyers, former Land Board employees, Board members and high-ranking members in the military. Kgang said with those who had already benefited from the policy and were compensated by the appropriate authority, will go scot-free because they cannot turn back the hands of time. Earlier this year, the Land Resolution Committee, which included residents of the affected areas of Gabane, Mogoditshane, Mmopane and Metsimotlhabe expressed their intent to take on government over suspension of the policy. They felt that the Kweneng Land Board has unlawfully and unreasonably without any basis in the law made resolutions to compensate clients for the acquisition of their fields and never followed through with their resolutions.
Fake certificates
The Kweneng Land Board is also the most troubled with cases of fake land certificates prevalence. The cases involve the old Customary Land Grant certificates. Batswana are still scammed out of their hard-earned cash by fraudsters who use fake certificates to sell plots they do not own. As a result, the Kweneng Land Board ends up demolishing structures of people who buy land from fraudsters. Mogoditshane village is one of the most lucrative areas because it is just a few minutes away from the city.
In Kweneng, besides Mogoditshane, there are reported cases in Lentsweletau, Kopong, Gabane, Kumakwane and Thamaga because they are nearer to the capital city, Gaborone. Some of these cases have already being reported to the police. It is alleged that the certificates are produced at Internet Cafés. The Land Board has even revealed that they easily detect the fake certificates because they do not pass the security features.
Now the new Tribal Land Act explains that all pieces of land rights should have Secure Land Titles (SLTs). These new certificates or titles are set to solve all the problems Kweneng and other Land Boards have been facing with the old certificates.
The security features of the SLTs cannot be photocopied and are more secure. The new certificates are produced almost in the same manner as bank notes in terms of security. When it was launched last year, the new certificates replaced the old Customary Land Grant certificates, which has been issued by the Land Boards since 1970 following their establishment.
Firing employees backfires
Recently a Kweneng Land Board officer who was fired for wrongfully benefiting from the Compensation-In-Kind Policy laughed all the way to the bank after the High Court ordered that he be reinstated.
Letsweletse Keoraletse, who was employed at the Kweneng Land Board, under the Ministry of Lands and Water Affairs as a Principal Technical Officer, won his case because his employer had appointed an illegitimate chairperson for his hearing. He was accused of using inside information to acquire tribal land and then benefiting from the compensation awarded to owners of such acquired tribal land.
It was further stated that Keoraletse failed to declare his interest. After a disciplinary hearing, Keoraletse was dismissed from work on June 4, 2021.
Keoraletse then contended that the decision to dismiss him was unlawful, unreasonable, procedurally flawed and irrational. In the end, Justice Michael Leburu of the Gaborone High Court ordered that the decision to dismiss Keoraletse from employment was reviewed and set aside. Justice Leburu reinstated Keoraletse to his position with full benefits forthwith, including payment of arrears, from the date of dismissal.
More cases pile up
This week this publication reported that another Kweneng Land Board former employee Yamorena Masedi had approached the court accusing his former employer of firing him using a law that does not exist. Masedi is amongst others who were dismissed for what the Land Board referred to as acts of theft, misappropriation or wilful dishonesty against government and failing to declare a conflict of interest. Masedi was accused of acquiring and passing on a piece of plot to Mogoditshane Sub Land Board to benefit from the compensation in kind. Masedi, who is suing the Land Board for his dismissal, appeared before court recently seeking for his dismissal to be set aside arguing that there was nothing illegal about what he did about the land he acquired from an individual. According to the Land Board, on October 2019 Masedi obtained a piece of land at Gamononyane belonging to Tshotlego Phuthego and simultaneously surrendered it to the Mogoditshane Sub Land Board without a title for him to benefit from the compensation. Masedi now wants his dismissal set aside. Judgment has been reserved for August 23.
Squatters increase in Kweneng
Since time immemorial, illegal land occupation by squatters is nothing new and increased in the Kweneng area especially around Tsolamosese and Nkoyaphiri in Mogoditshane. In 2016, Land Boards across the country were verbally instructed to halt eviction of squatters by then ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services pending consultations with the political leadership. During that period, there were no consequences for the illegal occupants and more people continued to occupy land illegally. According to the Land Board, the same squatters would turn to the Board asking for pardon to regularise the plots. In 2015, the Kweneng Land Board consulted seven squatters in Metsimotlhabe and directed them to demolish their structures within 30 days but they did not comply and the Board applied for eviction from the Land Tribunal in May 2016. The Land Tribunal granted eviction orders in June and July 2016, which were subsequently served in December 2016 by the Deputy Sheriff. The eviction was halted because the Kweneng Land Board and other Land Boards were directed by the ministry not to go ahead with the implementation of court orders pending direction from the minister after consultation with the political leadership.
As implementation of the land servicing project progressed in Metsimotlhabe, it became evident that the squatters hindered progress. The Land Board then made a follow up with the Lands ministry in September 2020 seeking guidance and the latter permitted the Board to evict illegal land occupants in Metsimotlhabe Block 4.
The Land Board engaged all the squatters during its meetings of January, May and October 2021 to inform them of the impending eviction. The squatters still did not comply and the Land Board went ahead to implement the court orders and were evicted on November 12 and 18, 2021.
In late 2021, the Kweneng Land Board announced that from April 2019 to January 2021, there had been 137 illegal occupants registered by the Mogoditshane Sub Land Board and that most of the affected areas were Tsolamosese, Mogoditshane, Nkoyaphiri, Mmopane, Ledumadumane and areas near the Mogoditshane Senior Secondary School. Fast forward to the current squatter situation in Mogoditshane, which caused uproar this week, the Board claims that they gave the Mogoditshane illegal land occupants the same courtesy they gave to the Metsimotlhabe Block 4 squatters in 2021. Kgang says the residents who blocked the demolition exercise were given nine months to vacate the place. Following the government’s intervention, Kgang said they will return to Nkoyaphiri soon where the ‘yellow monster’ will finally complete the task.