New Land Policy For Urban Villages

MONKAGEDI GAOTLHOBOGWE
Staff Writer | Monday May 27, 2013 00:00

 

Lands Minister, Lebonaamang Mokalake, says in the July session of Parliament, he will table a new land policy that will, among others, introduce a quota system for land allocation for the villages lying within the periphery of the capital city. The policy, Mokalake says, seeks to address the problem of land being gobbled up by city dwellers at the expense of the residents of those villages.

Mokalake says the quota system will see over 70 percent of land allocated by the Land Boards going to the residents of those villages, while only a small proportion will go to other Batswana.However, the minister says to control incidences of Batswana selling their residential plots as soon as they acquire them, the new policy will make it impossible for any one with a single residential plot to dispose of it.

While announcing the policy that will take pressure off of villages like Tlokweng, Bokaa, Oodi, Ramotswa, Mmopane, Mogoditshane, Gabane and other neighbouring villages, the minister says he is worried about Batswana residing in these villages who continue to sell their residential plots.

In Ramotswa for instance, Mokalake says last year alone, 297 plots were sold in five months. The previous year, they allocated 339 plots in Ramotswa, while 397 plots were sold.The Minister further says 297 plots were sold in Otse recently.

Currently, Batlokwa have launched a legal battle trying to recover some 200 plots that are set to be allocated to non-residents of Tlokweng at the expense of Batlokwa.  The same sentiments have been expressed in Bokaa, Oodi, Mochudi, Ramotswa and Otse, where President Ian Khama recently addressed kgotla meetings.

However, a motion by Member of Parliament Odirile Motlhale seeking to protect villagers' land rights was recently defeated in Parliament because the majority argued such a policy would fuel tribalism.