Gabs Encroaches On Tribal Land

FREDERICK KEBADIRETSE
Staff Writer | Friday June 4, 2010 00:00

Towards the end of last year, police had to be called in to control a crowd of plot seekers who almost caused chaos outside the Tlokweng Land Board offices after less than 300 plots were made available for the public to apply for in the tribal area. The question most people ask is, what really contributes to the massive shortage of land in and around the city? Will the city be able to hold the ever-increasing population in years to come? Is there a possibility of expanding the city? Inquiries by The Monitor last week at the Gaborone City Council physical planning department revealed that the major contributor to land shortage in the city is population growth. Originally, the city was planned to safely accommodate 20,000 people in what was then known as 'The Garden City' concept.

This population was projected for 1990, but it surpassed the mark in the late 70's, meaning the projection was far from being accurate. Statistics from the 2001 population census show that the Gaborone population was at 186,007. Another factor that was identified as leading to land shortage was investment. It is said there has been an increased demand in the use of land for business purposes, especially in the past decade.

This has been evident from the influx of applications for change of land use from residential to other uses, especially commercial. The land in the city is generally properly utilised as the building density in a city is influenced by the demand for building space racing against the availability of land. Landowners are permitted to develop up to three storeys for single family residential and six storeys for multi-family residential as stipulated in the Development Control Code of 1995.

Commercial buildings, on the other hand, could go way beyond that, provided other planning parameters are met. Building density is said to be best left to market forces, but developers are encouraged to build multi-storey buildings whenever it is feasible. According to the city planners, the location of Gaborone is, for the most part, suited for a capital city because, as a major trading node, the city's economic prosperity depends heavily on its proximity to South Africa.  Furthermore the city is located in the southeastern region where the favourable climatic conditions and availability of natural resources make it relatively more economic to run.  It was however highlighted that the city's proximity to arable lands and the border pose a serious challenge in the growth of Gaborone. The city is surrounded by tribal land, with Balete land to the South, Kweneng to the west, Kgatleng to the north and Batlokwa land before reaching the South African border to the East.The planners hope that the city could still expand laterally through the acquisition of neighbouring freehold farms in the South East District and under-utilised arable land.  They said, however, acquisition of land is a lengthy and difficult process.

'There is no room for growth towards Tlokweng and Mogoditshane, hence the findings of a recently revised Gaborone Development Plan (1997-2021) puts strong emphasis on densification or vertical growth of the city.  Asked if the location and capacity of streets, highways and sewer system in Gaborone were ideal for a city setup, they said experience has shown that the city's population is outweighing its infrastructure, hence the current upgrading and expansion of the city's major roads and major sewer line. 

A need for long-term solutions such as vertically separating traffic and creating off-ramps for detours on some highways was also identified together with a need for a comprehensive network of travelling paths for non-motorised transport.Looking at the future, the planners identified a need for integrated management of the Greater Gaborone region (Gaborone, Mogoditshane, Tlokweng, Kgale and Mokolodi, Gabane), but the current challenge is that these settlements are under the jurisdiction of three administrative districts (Gaborone, Kweneng and South-East). The hurting truth here is that, if these do not come into play, there might be a possibility of stalled growth of the city in the future. Asked for his opinion on the current and future state of the city, senior lecturer in the Department of Architecture and planning at the University of Botswana, Professor Faustin Kalabamu, said the current scramble for land is accelerated by the fact that the land is available for free and at low cost.  The other problem he identified with land allocation was the size of plots that are awarded to people, which he considered as too big. 'Maybe it is time we allocate smaller plots and ask people to build vertically rather than horizontally as this takes a lot of space,' he said.  He said double storey buildings should be encouraged even in built-up areas. Kalabamu expressed concern over the railway line that cuts across the city saying it is a major contributor to congestion in major roads around the city. He believes that the railway line should be underground once it enters the city to allow many roads across the city without worrying of having flyover bridges.  He said graded intersections are also necessary as major crossroads in the city as there will be a free flow of traffic in the city.

He added that the city centre is dying and needs to be upgraded in the same model as Sandton in South Africa was developed, having an all in one shopping area. He said Gaborone still has got a lot of potential as the city is increasingly becoming a regional hub as it is at the centre of SADC.  'We should have a trend of developing big, bold infrastructure like Dubai has done as this can also help diversify the economy by means of formulating commercial tourism, that is people coming here to buy,' he said.

However, all is not lost as the city is only 45 years old and there is still a quite distant possibility that Gaborone can match other cities of the world as our city has been the fastest growing city in Africa for the past decade.