�Your report was abuse of press freedom�
Correspondent | Friday April 28, 2017 14:53
We do not usually respond to newspaper reports but in view of the inaccuracies and obvious glaring malice of your article, we felt compelled to put the record straight lest your readership is misled to believe your blatant lies peddled in the said article.
The article suggests that the Minister of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, Honourable Prince Maele “shortly after coming to office” favoured and/or was corrupt in granting change of land use for Khato Civils, “a move which was stopped earlier by his predecessor”.
It goes further to suggest that he was bribed and as a result disregarded the provisions of the Land Policy and previous pronouncements made by other Ministers barring titleholders from changing agricultural land holdings in tribal land to non-agricultural developments.
While we have always held Mmegi in high regard, the article has left us with no option but to join the rest of your readership that your paper that was once a brand has degenerated into a joke owing to the poor calibre and pettiness of its reporters.
Reading through the article, it has been clearly demonstrated that your reporter is naïve, uninformed, and above all less conversant with Land related Acts and what it takes to change land use.
The true facts are that in 2008, there was an approval of the Kgatleng District Integrated Land Use Plan which zoned land north of Oodi junction, right up to Fairview gardens; opposite Belabela quarries junction, industrial. For starters, this was before the Honourable Minister held public office.
This area was predominantly masimo and a deliberate decision was taken not to change land use of these ploughing fields as individual entities but all en-mass albeit in two phases.
The first phase was from Oodi junction to where Engen Filling Station is, and the second was from Engen to Fairview gardens.
It is in this connection that base maps and structure plans were done with the golden thread that thriving agricultural developments in that area be left as is. It is important to underscore that this process involved consultations with the district leadership such as the Land Board, District Commissioner’s office, Bogosi and the District Council.
To this end, there have been three companies which had applied to change land use within the area described above. All these Companies were granted change of land use in March 2017 by Kgatleng Land Board and not the Minister, “shortly after coming to office” as your reporter purports.
Why your reporter just mentioned Khato Civils as the only beneficiary of these dispensation still puzzles us. Our guess is that his numerous reference to Simbi Phiri, as Malawian is demonstration of his jealousy and xenophobic tendencies. Needless to say, this is bad for nation building. Our Ministry does not in any way make consideration to place of origin of Companies or their directors when considering change of land use but merit of each case. This and many other inaccuracies, certainly does not help the reputation of the once “force to reckon with” newspaper.
The reporter quoted the previous Minister of Lands and Housing out of context, he did not give the reader the benefit of what the subject of his abstract was at that time. He further ignorantly avers that the Minister contravened the Land Policy but does not even take the pain to refer the reader to at least the clause that has been contravened.
Picture this; Batswana have for some time been complaining of delays in our process and procedures, particularly change of land use.
While an average person would ordinarily congratulate the Land Board for the worth and speedy decision making, someone calling himself a reporter, is consumed by bitterness and jealousy and only holds that this could be as a result of corruption and bribery, by the Minister, who was not even part of the meeting that made that resolution. In his innuendo and insinuation of bribery, he does not even help the reader to appreciate the quantum of such bribery.
It is common cause that with all this said, rumour mongering and gossiping which this reporter holds dearly won’t take this waning paper anywhere. We stand by the decision taken by Kgatleng Land Board, and their decision was not influenced by any ulterior motive in the circumstances. It is for this reason that our Minister takes full responsibility of their decision.
We subscribe to freedom of the press but where there is apparent abuse of this freedom, culprits must be brought to book, and we believe this is one such case where a reporter and/or a newspaper abused its freedom of expression.
We therefore posit that this article has defamed and assassinated the character of the Minister, and hereby demand an apology, a retraction of this story wholly and that the article should be pulled from the internet. We further demand that this rebuttal be given the same prominence that your story was given in your paper. In conclusion, our options will remain open while the rights of the Minister are reserved in this instance depending on your course of action.
Yours Faithfully,
Tshepho M. Seoke
For/Permanent Secretary
Ministry of Land Management,
Water & Sanitation Services