The Batlokwa Deputy Chief, Michael Gaborone, has called for serious action against locals who sell their residential plots and households.
Gaborone raised the concern to the Minister of Lands and Housing Lebonaamang Mokalake saying it is now a trend particularly amongst the youth to sell their plots.
Speaking at a Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) ground breaking ceremony for the construction of houses in Tlokweng, Gaborone said that a lot of locals particularly Batlokwa tribesmen and women sell their residential plots when faced by financial instability in order to settle their debts.
“Our tribal administration is always busy with issues of changes of ownership from one person to the other on a daily basis … selling land that they got for free,” said Gaborone.
He called for a centralised system in the Land Boards to access the data base which reveals people’s acquired land and locations. He said it was time for a policy that restricted ownership of a land to one plot.
“For a longtime, these kinds of issues have created conflicts within families and it is long overdue for the government to respond promptly,” said Gaborone.
Gaborone also expressed concern about the illegal buying and selling of residential plots at very low prices, particularly to non citizens.
Gaborone also observed that the population is increasing daily while the land does not increase.
“The residential plot owners who sold their plots should now be automatically blacklisted and should not get a new plot anywhere in the country,” he said.
Furthermore, the Batlokwa Deputy Chief emphasised that the Tlokweng Land Board has been experiencing land shortage, resulting in long waiting lists.
“The nation must appreciate that historically the Batlokwa tribe were courteous and gave away their large piece of land to be part of the city centre which is now the capital city Gaborone,” he stated.
Meanwhile Mokalake has revealed that there is a new land policy proposal which has been forwarded to Ntlo ya Dikgosi which suggests that when a Motswana is given more than one plot, she or he is not allowed to sell all of them but would rather leave one for residential.
He also echoed Gaborone’s words of computerizing the Lands Boards systems and also networking with BURS, Police and Councils.
