BDP ownership of Bontleng plot questioned
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Wednesday March 18, 2015 10:25
The issue came up yesterday in Parliament after Gaborone North MP Haskins Nkaigwa asked the minister of Lands and Housing if he was aware that the BDP was illegally occupying the said plot.
Nkaigwa said the plot in question fell under residential ownership, so the ruling party should produce documents to prove that it bought the plot from someone. “There was a savigram that was written in 2013, in which the council wanted BDP to produce plot documents, which the BDP failed to do. Again, the BDP had not paid service levy since it claims that the plot is theirs,” Nkaigwa said.
The legislator is a former BDP councillor and also a former Gaborone city mayor.
Francistown South MP Wynter Mmolotsi said he did not understand why the minister insists that the plot belongs to the BDP if the party is unable to produce anything concrete to prove ownership.
“If there are records dating back 1907, how come there are no proper records for such plot,” Mmolotsi condemned the minister’s claim that he did not have records in relation to the plot which was possibly allocated after independence in 1966.
After Nkaigwa’s expose, opposition MPs said they were not satisfied that plot 2110 belonged to the ruling party since it had failed to produce documents of ownership.
The Minister of Lands and Housing Prince Maele, however, insisted that the plot belongs to the BDP. He said the property was used as party headquarters prior to the construction of Tsholetsa House. “However, it is apparent that during the period of occupation, documentation relating to ownership of this plot was misplaced. In this connection, regularisation of ownership was started in 2005 and was successfully concluded in the recent past. To this end, I have no plans to evict the BDP from the said plot as it is lawfully theirs,” Maele said. He admitted that the BDP had not paid service levy since it was allocated the said plot but its documents got misplaced like any other documents. He accused the Gaborone City Council of failing to keep proper documents and database of plots in the city.
Maele said the plot attracted controversy when the BDP announced its intentions and GCC claimed ownership of the plot, a dispute that was resolved by the Department of Lands and Surveys recently.