To date, the town has plots that were serviced more than 30 years ago but have never been allocated while government repossessed some land more than 10 years ago that are yet to be transferred to new owners. This defeats council's efforts to collect revenue as the Local Government Act of 2012 prohibits the rating of land that is owned by government, a special council meeting was told on Tuesday. A member of the Selebi-Phikwe Urban Development Committee who is also the local authority's Economic Planner, Nathaniel Maphotho, explained that council could only collect rates if the ownership of serviced plots has been transferred from government to individuals.
The delays in allocation of these plots have been attributed to the non-existence of the office of the department of lands. Meanwhile, the council also has to deal with needy people who do not own plots. This deprives such people from benefitting from poverty alleviation and housing projects. Maphotho said it was a requirement that beneficiaries who have plots should be enrolled in the programmes. Since the inception of the poverty alleviation and housing project only one beneficiary has been able to build a house on her own plot. "Currently 20 beneficiaries are engaged in the project but none of them has acquired a plot," he said. He regretted that acquisition of land is impossible for needy persons yet authorities promote home ownership. The presentation by the Urban Development Committee for the September 3 cabinet visit to council recommends that land allocation procedures be amended to create opportunities for the under-privileged. It also recommends that the poverty alleviation and housing programmes be incorporated into poverty eradication projects and be subjected to the same evaluation and monitoring mechanism. The presentation also recommends that the construction of a primary school and a clinic in Mekoro be considered as one of the national priorities. Maphotho elaborated that more that 2,500 plots in Mekorong were serviced and most of the residential plots were allocated to owners during NDP 9. However, the implementation of NDP 10 has been suspended due to lack of resources. This means that the planned construction of a clinic and a primary school for Mekorong were suspended hence the pressure on the existing facilities in Botshabelo.
