Dusting the land issues of 2023
Mompati Tlhankane | Monday December 25, 2023 13:21
As a reporter I love working with archives and laying my hands on information that has been untouched for years. Stories about land are tales as old as time and they are very conflict sensitive, among other things. Research, reports and documents from sources are important resources for providing well-researched articles that explain complex issues.
This year, I happened to uncover and highlight some of these land stories by locating material from original sources from a particular time to provide facts and add variety to my articles. This information offered an account which others might not have considered in the past and for me it culminated into informative articles.
Before the curtains fell on Bamalete land saga at the Court of Appeal (CoA), Forest Hill 9KO farm issues dated back to 1925 when the tribe raised 3, 000 Sterling Pounds to buy the land for investment purposes. Prior to government reclaiming 45, 000 hectares of land in the North East District from Tati Company (TC) at the cost of P1.4 billion this year, the starting point was in 1870 Cecil John Rhodes claimed land (vast tracks of land being the whole of the North East District) for his company, Tati Concessions Limited.
As Kweneng Land Board still grapples with issues of land, the Kgabo Report (1991) was the first of several to expose wrongdoings by government leaders in land issues in Kweneng, a thing that continues to this day with the controversial Mogoditshane Sub Land Board’s Compensation-In-Kind ‘policy’.
The above stories all covered by yours truly show that history sheds light on the most important issues we face today, land. It is worth noting that these kinds of articles can often be lengthy, and difficult for reporters to transform into engaging stories, but it is never the case with me. In the newsroom when I start working on these kinds of stories, they often call it ‘rolling the tape’. Rolling the tape is far from regurgitating information and it is more of doing proper research and using knowledge of the past to get new angles and perspectives about the present. Continuing the series of looking back at the past year, in this article I decided to delve into the most important land stories of 2023.
Bamalete victory After decades of fighting the government over a piece of land called Forest Hill 9-KO, the Bamalete tribe in the South Eastern District of Botswana finally saw the rights to their ancestral lands endorsed by the Court of Appeal (CoA) in one of the most controversial court battles in our history. Bamalete prevailed in a case in which at some point fingered President Mokgweetsi Masisi.
The case was tainted by controversy when Kgosi Mosadi Seboko, the Kgosikgolo of Ba Ga-Malete, claimed that President Masisi interfered with the Judiciary and wanted to play the hero in the matter. At the time, Kgosi Mosadi set tongues wagging when she made known allegations before the media a few days before Bamalete’s first CoA appearance. To this day, Masisi has failed to address the issue and it has left people wondering if indeed the President had uttered the remarks. After the court victory in March, Parliament removed Kgosi Mosadi from the Pan-African Parliament committee. Land is often a vital aspect of conflict and may trigger more conflicts therefore when I approached this issue as writer, I cautiously dealt with it to avoid stirring more conflicts.
It is worth noting that as a tribe in the South Eastern part of Botswana, Bamalete pursued the land they bought in 1925, and the only compensation for land was land. My observation is that throughout this case in court, linked together in their cause and in their need, the elderly Bamalete tribesmen and women who were mostly past their 60s in age, were at the forefront.
At some point during the legal battle, the elderly Bamalete tribe pointed out that they would continue the legal fight for another 100 years and in the culmination of it all their children will continue where we left off.
That was determination they showed and how far they were willing to go to safeguard the future of their descendants.
Bamalete, through their lawyer Geoff Budlender, made submissions before the CoA to the effect that the case is for the generations and will affect Balete’s children and grandchildren for generations to come. Bamalete indicated that they could not be stopped from challenging the validity of a law, which breaches one’s constitutional rights and takes away the land, which their predecessors bought.
The State on the other side contended that the issue of the rightful owners of the farm was determined by the CoA in the 2011 Quarries of Botswana case. The state also revealed that it is entitled to the land because it helped settle the remaining debt when the tribe could not. But in the end, Bamalete who accused government of ‘encroaching’ on ‘their’ territory, prevailed and their victory could reshape the way government approaches land rights in Botswana in future.
After the CoA ended the decade-long feud, this reporter went on a guided tour of the heavily disputed land that will give life to Balete and the next generations.
Overall Forest Hill 9-KO measures 2,229 hectares and is that land locked between Mokolodi Nature reserve, Mokolodi Village, the Roman Catholic land and the railway. Balete say they will finally use the land for the broader benefit of the community. According to Kgosi Mosadi, the land’s estimated value is P1 billion and the tribe has engaged consultants on how to best reap from the land.
Tati land acquisition
The other land story I wrote about was almost similar to Bamalete but instead of going all the way to the highest court in the land, the government decided to purchase 45, 000 hectares of land in the North East District from the Tati Company (TC) at a cost of P1.4 billion. Although this was an ancient colonial error, which was allowed to drag on for 153 years, just like for Balete, the people in the north eastern part of Botswana finally regained the land of their forefathers.
Even though, government has revealed that the chunk of land is now State land, stories that address historic wrongs are very sensitive because they involve indigenous people who have been landless for their entire lives. Conversely, this was a big story because for 153 years ,there was no room for villages and the city expansions especially the second city of Francistown.
Aside from the people who were happy that land was reclaimed without bloodshed, the Tati land acquisition was also something that was applauded by legislators in Parliament including members of the opposition.
Government was quick to boast that it did better because it conceded less while Tati conceded more during negotiations. Speaking of negotiations, the opportunity to buy back the land came sometime back when the Tati Company approached the government to give the latter right of first refusal, which was the right to refuse to purchase the remaining land. Lands and Water Affairs minister Kefentse Mzwinila said the government had no choice but to buy back the land.
As I wrote this story, I went to great lengths to do a thorough research about this land which was taken by Rhodes Tati Concessions Limited Company more than a century and a half ago. I enjoy following stories about subjects who find ways to regain some of the ancestral terrain they lost. I admire how they overcome numerous obstacles and challenges until they become victorious.
Now that this land will be converted from freehold land to State land, government has indicated that it will be of national strategic importance. Government says Batswana must be consulted as to what happens to the land. Although government has made it clear that 45, 000 hectares of land cannot be tribal land and will go to the Tati Land Board, the latter has expressed optimism that they will get a stake from the land in order to alleviate land shortage.
Kweneng land troubles
One other story which captivated the reader was the height of the Kweneng Land Board’s troubles which escalated when the Kweneng Land Board decided to obliterate various structures in the squatter settlement in Nkoyaphiri ward in Mogoditshane. Squatters stood their ground when a bulldozer popularly known as the ‘Yellow Monster’ was about to turn their homes into massive heaps.
Kweneng Land Board chairperson, Kgang Kgang was adamant in evicting the squatters saying they hindered progress. Kgang maintained that for months the squatters had been told to vacate Nkoyaphiri but the latter refused. After an intervention from Cabinet, the eviction has since been halted.
Following this story was quite broad because it was about the same Land Board which has been troubled since the Kgabo Land Commission. I had to dig deep to where it all began when the late former president Sir Ketumile Masire investigated allegations of corruption in land allocation in Gaborone and the surrounding areas. Just like I have stated above, the stories that I write connect the present to the past. Currently Kgang Kgang, the Kweneng Land Board chairperson is fighting to right the wrongs in Mogoditshane Sub Land Board’s 2019 Compensation-In-Kind ‘policy’ which allegedly opened doors to corruption, land grabbing and fraud. The Compensation-In-Kind ‘policy’ was stopped because it was unlawful. In the policy, when one surrendered their ploughing field, he or she would get six residential plots as compensation.
Although in the 90s the late Peter Mmusi and then senior minister Daniel Kwelagobe were absolved from any wrongdoing, Kgang, alleges that people who are allegedly involved this time around in land corruption include councillors, high court judges, lawyers, former Land Board employees, Board members and high-ranking members in the military.
Kgang earlier this year pointed out that they managed to clean their office by firing 38 of their employees who benefited from the policy. But, now the employees have come back to haunt the Land Board with legal actions. The employees who were dismissed for what the Land Board referred to as acts of theft, misappropriation or wilful dishonesty against government and failing to declare conflicts of interest have won some of their cases in court. Beside the controversial policy, the Kweneng Land Board is also the most troubled with prevalent cases of fake land certificates.
The cases involve the old Customary Land Grant certificates where Batswana are scammed out of their hard-earned cash by fraudsters who use fake certificates to sell plots they do not own.
Overall, these stories were engaging because they involved people in conflict and as a reporter I had to tread carefully writing about opposing sides. Nations have fought each other over land issues and families still fight each other over land matters to this date so land issues needed to be treated with care as they could destabilise communities and the nation at large. In general, I like how we covered all angles and gave each side a platform from the squatters who blocked the ‘Yellow Monster’ to the unrelenting Kweneng Land Board, which wanted to clear the place.
These land stories, however, did not take away the limelight from the high performing ministry of Lands and Water Affairs led b Mzwinila.
The last update last month showed that in terms of plot allocation the ministry was nearing 58, 000 with a target of 100, 000 residential plots. So far according to Mzwinila, 72, 000 plots have been surveyed and once ready they will be allocated to Batswana and the 100, 000 target will be achieved. The government has since admitted that they have challenges and among the key challenges of plot allocation was surveying and conveyancing because the ministry was stretched in terms of surveying 100, 000 plots.
The government has since approached the private sector for help so a number of Botswana companies were hired to make the surveying aspect a joint effort between government and the private sector.
According to the government, the ministry in terms of plot allocations is at 800% of the average of the past 20 years with the same financial resources and equipment.
Mzwinila is adamant that what they used to have as a waiting list is exaggerated because some of the people in that list have already been allocated plots elsewhere in the country.