Dikgosi decry lack of service delivery
Chakalisa Dube | Thursday January 28, 2016 16:08
Dikgosi said on Tuesday that lands issues take long to be resolved and end up disadvantaging both youth and elders.
They were commenting on a question asked by Kgosi Colly Cock of Thamaga region, who wanted to know if the minister is aware that land boards are slow in service delivery, and take up to a year to resolve issues pertaining to plots encroaching on one another.
“Is the minister aware that this delay could cause loss of evidence resulting in one party being prejudiced or even losing a plot,” asked Cock.
Although Maele admitted that some lands boards are slow in service delivery, some Dikgosi felt that the ministry is not doing enough to improve the situation.
“Some of these delays take extended periods of time and even result in the loss of crucial documentation. This is caused by several factors which include resource and capacity constraints. Mr chairman, to address this situation, my ministry has embarked on a series of initiatives to capacitate Land Boards to deliver better service to customers effectively and efficiently,” Maele said.
He said these initiatives will include recruitment of qualified personnel, implementation of a new organisational structure, re-engineering of land delivery processes to shorten turnaround times, continuous daily service delivery, creation of customer service centres, improvement of record keeping, development of land information system and review legislation.
Kgosi Rapelang Khuwe of Tutume region said the ministry should have more employees because the issues of land are serious.
“A mme jaanong ga o bone ha ministry wa gago o direla batho mathata ka go latlha di documents tse dibothokwa. Kana ga go a tshwanelwa gore ministry wa lands o bo o re ga o bone dipampiri tsa motho gotlhelele (Don’t you think your ministry is perpetuating problems for plot owners by losing their documents? It’s not in order for your ministry to say they can’t locate the documents),” Khuwe said.
Specially elected Kgosi Salatiel Nguvauva said if the ministry loses someone’s document then it should find a quick solution than to make an individual to wait for a year or more.
“I don’t think people should be punished for mistakes that are not theirs,” Nguvauva said.