Speed up land distribution now

Shortage of serviced land for residential plots continues to dominate public discussion on the country’s economic performance. People are frustrated at the slow pace at which land is being distributed in urban areas, as confirmed by recent petitions to the Ministry of Lands and Housing, as well as court cases in which the applicants demanding to be given land.

The number of applicants for residential plots, we are told, has exceeded the population.

This creates a bad image of the authorities charged with this mandate. It is inconceivable that in this age of information technology, officers in Land Boards still do their records manually, and therefore are unable to easily detect land speculators and multiple times applicants.

Editor's Comment
Who watches the watchdog?

For a fact, in a democratic society such as Botswana, the media plays a crucial role of being watchdog, holding the powerful to account and exposing all possible wrongdoing for the benefit of the public.There has been a nagging question about who watches the watchdog after all? Perhaps, the investigations into alleged wrongful acts implicating those supposed to be playing the watchdog role will shed more light into what has happened such that the...

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