The shocking figures of land fraud

Bame Piet | Thursday June 18, 2015 18:00

 

A total of 129 individuals have been contacted, questioned, and some of them will be appearing in court in the near future.

According to information we have gathered Gaborone SHHA is leading with 391 plots and 24 suspects,  followed by Mogoditshane with 135 plots and 34 suspects under investigation. 

Tlokweng Land Board has 17 plots under investigation. The plots include ploughing fields, residential and commercial plots.

The gathering, which was organised by Transparency International. Commonwealth Anti Corruption Centre, and the Ministry of Lands and Housing also discussed the causes of land corruption, ways in which such corruption can be fought, and the need for strengthening legislation on land allocation.

Contacted for comment the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crimes (DCEC) confirmed that they were indeed handling the cases, some of which have been submitted to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for further action.

The DCEC spokesperson, Nyalisi Gambule, however, would not shed light on the individuals involved.  “What I can confirm is that we are handling that number of cases, some of which we have been investigating for the past five years,” he said.

Meanwhile, during the conference, officials from the ministry acknowledged that land speculators take advantage of the loopholes in the laws and that they still do their records manually as the electronic database is under construction.