NLB has no authority over Selebi-Phikwe

ONALENNA MODIKWA | Thursday August 9, 2012 00:00

Baputaki dismissed allegations by Selebi-Phikwe residents who claimed that they were allocated commercial plots by the Mmadinare Sub-Land Board to build lodges along the Selebi-Phikwe-Sefhophe Road only to be stopped by the Selebi-Phikwe Town Council (SPTC).  Claims are that the said developers had already made developments worth P500,000 and P300,000 respectively before the council stopped them.

SPTC officials were recently quoted in a local publication saying that the Mmadinare Sub-Land Board had encroached on state land but that they are doing their best to engage the Lands Department to allow them to go ahead with their projects.

Responding to questions from Mmegi, Baputaki said Ngwato Land Board has never allocated land within Selebi-Phikwe boundaries as amended and gazetted by Statutory Instrument No 5OF 2005. She said the confusion regarding township/tribal land boundaries arise from the Selebi-Phikwe Development Plan of 2006 extending beyond the township boundaries into the Bamangwato tribal area.  'The allocations in question still remain in tribal land until the process of excising the area of overlap from tribal land and annexing it to state land is complete,' she said. She added that to remedy the situation, a series of meetings between Ngwato Land Board, Department of Lands, Department of Surveys and Mapping, BCL, Selebi-Phikwe Economic Diversification Unit (SPEDU) and SPTC were held to resolve the situation.

It was resolved that due process of excising tribal land to augment state land be followed with proper consultations with lease holders. 'The tribal area in question has already been surveyed and submitted to the Department of Surveys and Mapping for approval so that it becomes part of the township. It must be noted that the Selebi-Phikwe Development Plan is currently under review,' she said.