Computerisation of land records on course - Molefhi

MBONGENI MGUNI
Staff Writer | Friday November 5, 2010 00:00

Efforts to computerise land records and management systems date as far back as 1990 through attempts to automate the Registrar of Deeds, Department of Surveys and Mapping, as well as spreading this to individual land boards.

Challenges have included the substantial information involved, poor record keeping at various levels, insufficient bandwidth for the size of documents to be shared and difficulties involving the appropriate software to be used.

Lands and Housing Minister, Nonofo Molefhi says computerisation would weed out multiple owners of allocated land, who have been blamed for creating artificial land shortages.

'Currently we have not fully computerised land ownership records and we are in that process to see who owns land, where and of what type. I know a number of people who own several properties through allocation and not through purchasing on the market,' he told the Housing Pitso this week.

'Some have property in Molepolole, Tlokweng and more in their home villages. This multiple ownership of land has, to some extent, created an artificial shortage of land.

'From the beginning, had we said every citizen receives one plot, you would have had to decide whether it would be in the urban centre or the home village, not both.'

Molefhi explained that the ongoing data collection was year two of the five-year project involving the Swedish consultants. The exercise will prove laborious, as previous attempts at national and district level to compile land databases have been equally onerous.

By the fifth year, the ministry expects to have so thoroughly automated land records management, that officers will be capable of pinpointing physical addresses and mailboxes.

'Computerisation will assist us to see the real magnitude of land and housing requirements and it will also boost government's tax revenues.

'At the moment, no one knows who owns what in terms of land and tax; we can increase the tax base to government by identifying the ownership and types out there.

'Another issue resolved by computerisation will be the country's security,' he said.

Molefhi said the ministry and land board officers were also involved in capacity building programmes being conducted by the University of Botswana (UB) in preparation for the computerised records. He said the UB has partnered with a Swedish university and introduced programmes in land management at certificate and degree levels.

The computerisation of land records is also part of the overall drive to enhance information communication technology in the economy, as envisaged by Vision 2016.