Anyone who knows the land shortage situation in urban and some peri-urban areas will sympathise with the minister, knowing the hard rock that he finds himself in. Thousands of people want land, but the land is just not available. We are quite aware that due to the open market system other people in towns and cities own hundreds plots, while others do not have anything. The reality is that poverty and uneven development of our economy has led those with the means to use their financial wherewithal to buy land from those that have land, but do not possess the means to develop their plots. There is, of course, another scenario where those with the means have corruptly obtained land and unfortunately some of these people are in political leadership. When the minister talks of the one-plot policy the attitude amongst the cynics is that now that the bigwigs have greedily acquired land they want the system to stop so that they alone can over-exploit the landless. This might be true, but the reality is that the current system cannot go on forever, lest the future generation will have nothing. The current imbalance has to be addressed. Given our culture where a three-site system (of Masimo, Moraka and Legae) has been practised it would be virtually impossible to implement this policy. Currently, the dynamics have somewhat changed with people at least keeping two homes: one at the place of work and another at your place of birth.
The one-plot-one-person might need a whole cultural overhaul that people should now keep one home and this could lead to Batswana being uprooted from their home villages. We think as a nation we should debate the merits and demerits of this policy. Will it work in Botswana? The ministry cannot just take the easy way out. We might need to look at our land tenure system to see if it works rather than rush into a policy that might be difficult to implement.
