Promote housing over land allocation � Maele
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Wednesday May 18, 2016 16:16
He said most of the available land needed to be serviced before it was allocated, a move that involves high costs.
“I don’t mind too much when you don’t have a piece of land but you have somewhere to sleep,” he told delegates. “We should put emphasis on housing than land allocation, taking into consideration the availability of land, and when we are talking land, we mean serviced land.”
Participants at the Pitso heard that more than 50 percent of Batswana earn below P2,200 and cannot afford proper housing, hence many apply for land and resort to selling the plots, as they cannot afford to develop them.
However, there are more than 1.1 million people on the waiting list for land allocation countrywide and land speculation is a rising problem. Maele said for many people, land has become a commodity that can be used to make money.
The minister added that the analytical report for the 2011 Population and Housing Census indicated that inadequacy of basic shelter was one of the major problems faced by many Batswana.
“Consequently, there are enormous challenges in the housing sector to develop initiatives to address the problems associated with poor living conditions. “Government has made efforts through initiatives such as SHHA and others, but it is not enough.”
He said that initiatives such as the Installment Purchase Scheme, Youth Housing and the Tenant Purchase Scheme to be effected by the Botswana Housing Corporation in July this year, would facilitate home ownership.
The minister further added that they would launch a Public Private Partnership pilot project on land servicing with private companies in Kasane, Kgatleng, Ramotswa and Francistown.
Lands and Housing permanent secretary, Thato Raphaka, stated that the 2011 housing census noted that 25 percent of the population was inadequately housed.
The report found that 25 percent of Batswana lived in shacks, shared one-roomed houses or lived in houses without adequate basis infrastructure. “This is a result of high cost of housing and land. There is need to have a legislative framework on housing,” he said.