Mogoditshane still a squatters� haven
Pini Bothoko | Friday August 11, 2017 15:42
The mushrooming of squatters have plagued the Mogoditshane Sub Land Board despite the Board addressing residents several times on the negative impact of squatting.
The allocation of plots is still on suspension as the Sub Land Board is still facing the challenge of allocating land to 140,000 people on its waiting list that dates back to 1994. The Board has since indicated that it will not be open to new applications until the challenge in the backlog has been addressed.
Despite having long released their fields to the Sub Land Board years back, residents of Mogoditshane are still waiting for plots allocation, something that residents believe fuels the mushrooming of squatters in their location.
Addressing residents in a kgotla meeting yesterday, Mogoditshane Sub Land Board secretary Anthony Bashingi raised a concern over the continuous mushrooming of squatters though they have been forcefully evicted several times in the past.
He disclosed that they are faced with a lot of challenges surrounding issues of land but the issue of squatters is in the forefront with officers having sleepless nights trying to locate squatters.
“There are so many people who have constructed houses in open spaces without our permission nor Dikgosi’s consent as they used to allocate plots before the Land Boards were established in 1970,” Bashingi said.
He said the majority of squatters have the habit of developing the open spaces and cheat people by selling such houses to them at high prices.
“The majority of people have lost a lot of money to such people and we are currently investigating such fraud cases. We currently have 400 cases of fraud that are still under investigation. The majority of people have lost money and given fake plots certificates after buying plots from squatters,” Bashingi said pleading with residents to help them locate squatters in their village.
He revealed that 140,000 people are still on the waiting list hence cannot promise residents plots allocation in the near future because they are still faced with a number of challenges to resolve.
He stated that they have people who were pardoned by the President Ian Khama back in 2008 at Tsolamosese, Mogoditshane and Nkoyaphiri who are yet to be legally allocated their plots.
“This process is being delayed by amongst others issues of squatting hence will take a long period of time to resolve before we could allocate plots as well as to re-open plots application,” Bashingi said.
He stated that some squatters have allocated themselves plots where they were supposed to have allocated plots to people on the waiting list.
“We are currently dealing with such cases with some of them referred to the courts. The cases might take years to be solved hence delaying the allocation of plots. We also have cases of people who have been robbed their money by some people claiming to be Land Board officials promising to allocate them land,” Bashingi said.
For her part the chairperson of Mogoditshane Sub Land Board, Grace Maphorisa pleaded with residents to help them locate squatters.
“There are a number of squatters opposite the Mogoditshane Senior Secondary School and another yard with five one-rooms at Ledumadumane opposite Block 6, which we have been trying to locate their owners to no avail. Houses are constructed at night; please alert us about such developments so that we can involve the police to arrest those culprits,” Maphorisa pleaded.
Residents conceded that squatting is a problem in their village and volunteered to assist the officials to locate the squatters. They also pleaded with the Land Board to speed up allocation of plots as they have been on the waiting list for many years.
A resident, Keitumetse Santlo said she visited the Land Board officers several times to alert them about squatters in her neighbourhood, but to date no action has been taken.
“This demoralises me because it appears that you are entertaining squatters. Please address this issue before it get out of control,” Santlo said. Masego Loeto raised concern over delays in land allocation disclosing to have long applied for a residential plot back in July 1994 but to date he is yet to be allocated a plot.
“I was once told that I am around 300 and something in the waiting list, but last year October I was told that I was number 21,826. What is going on? I suspect your office is corrupt,” Loetlo charged.
Tshotlego Moatshe revealed that her parents’ field was taken by government years back and were promised to be allocated another plot, but to date they are yet to receive it.