FCC finally accesses farm

Chakalisa Dube | Tuesday February 26, 2019 15:11

For some time the city has maintained that it has failed on numerous occasions to access a farm it purchased from TC. 

“I am informed that the farm is now accessible as we speak and is currently not locked.  The council now has access to the farm without hindrance which is what we have been seeking,” mayor Sylvia Muzila said during a full council meeting this week. 

She added, “They (TC officials) have conceded to giving us the keys to the entrance that was originally used.  We can now access the farm at any given time”. 

The mayor stated that the council is currently working on a few agricultural initiatives that can be carried out at the farm to make it productive.

In the past the city council alleged that access to the farm is blocked by land owned by TC. 

Additionally the FCC stated that the alternative given by the company on how it (council) can access the farm is not easily attainable. 

The council highlighted that the land company had proposed that the farm should be accessed through a quarry, which connects to the A1 road at Tati Siding. The council said that accessing the farm through the alternative route would be very costly and time consuming. 

After ‘several attempts’ were made with TC to provide the FCC with access to the farm, the council warned that it would take the legal route if TC continued to deny it access to the farm. 

The company (TC), which is registered in the United Kingdom reportedly, owns more than 40% of land in northeastern Botswana. 

There are those who hold the view that land owned by TC should be expropriated and allocated to Batswana who are in need of land for various activities. Most of the land owned by the company remains undeveloped and is held under freehold tenure.