Kweneng Land Board goes after land grabbers
Friday, April 21, 2023 | 190 Views |
Kweneng Land board chairperson Kgang addressing the media. PIC: PHATSIMO KAPENG
According to the Kweneng Land Board chairperson Kgang Kgang, involved parties include councillors, judges, lawyers, former Land Board employees, Board members, and high-ranking members in the military.
In 2019, the Mogoditshane Sub-Land Board announced that when one surrenders their ploughing field, he or she would get six residential plots as compensation. This was coined into a policy called Compensation-In-Kind and while residents ululated at the development, a trend of land grabbing emerged within the system and the policy was suspended. The policy provided a loophole for some corrupt Land Board officers to acquire fields through dubious means to get compensation in kind. There was an influx of people buying the ploughing fields at around P100,000 a hectare only to later sell their six residential plots for around P250,000 each.
It highlights the need to protect rights such as access to clean water, education, healthcare and freedom of expression.President Duma Boko, rightly honours past interventions from securing a dignified burial for Gaoberekwe Pitseng in the CKGR to promoting linguistic inclusion. Yet, they also expose a critical truth, that a nation cannot sustainably protect its people through ad hoc acts of compassion alone.It is time for both government and the...