Tati Land Board perseveres amid acute land shortage
Joseph Balise | Monday September 25, 2023 06:00
Responding to enquiries, the TLB public relations officer, Lebogang Kwenane admitted to the acute land shortage crisis, explaining: "The Tati Land Board continually has an issue of land shortage."
According to Kwenane the shortage is mainly in both residential and agricultural land. The district has a jurisdictional area measuring 5, 960 square kilometres comprising of 61% tribal land and 39% freehold land. Despite the acute land shortage crisis and other impediments, the TLB has persevered in its delivery of services and the focus on in-fill base mapping is proving a success as the North East District Council has already approved an in-fill lay out survey for 11 villages in the financial year 2023/24.
The villages to be surveyed include Butale, Mowana, Siviya, Tsamaya, Masukwani, Pole, Kgari, Mbalambi, Matshelagabedi, Makaleng and Ramokgwebana. Kwenane also explains that 10 in-fill base maps have already been prepared and submitted to the NEDC Physical Planning department for detailing for the villages of Mambo, Sechele, Vukwi, Mosojane, Jackalas No.1, Senyawe, Matopi, Masunga, Patayamatebele and Ditladi. To address the problem of the shortage of land for both residential and agricultural purposes, TLB initiates yearly acquisition plans aligned to land demand in different areas of the district. The land authority has already acquired 110 hectares of land from various property owners in the current financial year according to Kwenane. "This land will be planned for and surveyed before allocation to those in the waiting lists", said Kwenane adding that "those who were affected by the village extension have already been compensated".
The public relations officer explained that the process of land acquisition for the year 2023/24 has been realised at the cost of P3.8 million, being the total sum paid out in compensation to land owners. According to Kwenane, the land authority plans to acquire yet another 100 hectares of land at an approximated P5m in the current financial year.
The land authority also intends to acquire about 180 hectares of land in the next two financial years at an estmated cost of P7 million which is subject to change due to the cost of the market value developments at the time of assessment. Unfortunately according to Kwenane, the land authority "doesn't have a budget for land acquired through the village extension programme". The acquisition of land for village extension is funded by the Ministry of Lands and Water Affairs, which submits a Project Memo to the Ministry of Finance for inclusion in the ministry's annual budget grant. "The budget depends on the land to be acquired and the developments made at the time of assessment", said Kwenane. Like most land authorities, the TLB is also grappling with the problem of allocation backlog which by April 2023 stood at 31,413.
The problem that the land authority faces is an influx of people to villages close to Francistown like Tati Siding, Matshelagabedi and Shashe Bridge in need of land and this has culminated in high numbers of applicants in the waiting lists.
"There is also shortage of land in meeting the needs of the agricultural sector. This goes to show that a person who is granted a farm in the North East District is allocated a minimum of two hectares to a maximum of eight hectares whilst in other districts one may be allocated between 16 and 25 hectares", said Kwenane. This clearly demonstrates the gravity of the shortage in comparison to other areas. On how the Land Board generally fares in terms of service delivery and overall performance, Kwenane said based on the previous year, "the TLB has done relatively well". This is despite the challenges of backlogs dating as far back as 2001 in some villages especially those in the outskirts of Francistown though are efforts being made to expedite the allocation processes. In addition, according to the public relations officer, land acquisition processes are being intensified to augment available land to reduce complaints from applicants. On the upside, Kwenane is elated that the land authority has managed to allocate applicants within a space of one month in the period between March and July 2023.
These formidable feats were made in the villages of Makaleng, Sekakangwe and Ramokgwebana among others. To address some of the challenges, the TLB continues to acquire more land pockets "until the waiting list is exhausted as a way of meeting the needs of Batswana to own land". As regards multiple applicants, she said TLB is busy vetting out those applicants and also reaching out to them to settle for one application at their area of choice". In conclusion, Kwenane said the Land Board has a stakeholder engagement plan devised as a way of outlining customer needs and how to deal with them, including how to address customer complaints.
The TLB also has an active Facebook page, which is used to interact with the public at large. The public relations office also monitors and ensures that all complaints are addressed and accordingly resolved as guided by the office of the Board Secretary.