Wednesday, November 6, 2024

Government needs to revisit the Gaborone land shortage issue

It is doubtless that Botswana’s capital city faces acute land shortage for its development. While this is a serious problem for city planners, we are dismayed that the government seems reluctant to utilise options available to address the situation as per the recommendations of consultants it engaged to come up with a development plan for the city.

We are alive to the fact that the government recently expropriated land from the residents of Ledumadumane for the expansion of Gaborone. But the very same government seems reluctant to do so when it comes to wealthy individuals who own freehold that the government desperately needs.

The tardiness with which the government seems to act on recommendations made of the revised Gaborone City Development Plan by Mosienyane & Partners International and Plantec Africa is, in our view, likely to create even more problems for the government against the escalating costs of freehold land which, we hear, is the reason why the government is developing cold feet to acquire such land in and around Gaborone.

The Gaborone City Development Plan has recommended to the government to purchase freehold land or acquire tribal land and convert it to state land destined for urban development. The plan recommended growth of Gaborone through the expansion over state land within the boundaries of Gaborone City, which includes Block 5, Glen Valley, Sebele, Tsholofelo Extension, remainder of Sowenflat 2-KO south of Phakalane Estate, a portion of Forest Hill 9-KO (owned by the GaMalete tribe held as freehold land) and expansion over the Kweneng tribal land between the Botswana Defence Force Camp in Mogoditshane and Sir Seretse Khama Airport.

According to the professional opinion of the property development experts, acquisition of such land would make available some 6 600 hectares of land. This translates into 140 000 (One hundred and forty thousand) residential plots measuring each 450 square metres. With current estimates and population projections, experts say government needs about 13 600 hectares of land for the city’s development.

According to the experts, there are currently over 6 700 allocated undeveloped plots in Gaborone.
The recommendations by Mosienyane & Partners International and Plantec Africa are not confined to the acquisition of the above land only. The experts also say the government has the option of utilising developable land within the Gaborone Development Plan Area where there are possibilities of infills, repossession of allocated but undeveloped land plots and intensification of development within plot cartilages as well as plot subdivisions.

But the real problem facing the government is the seemingly unwillingness, regardless of whether or not it emanates from the government or land owners, to enter into partnerships with to develop the city. The property developers have identified the widespread land use change from agriculture to urban functions in Mmokolodi, Crocodile Pools, Notwane freehold farms, Gaphatshwa, Mmopane, Ledumadumane and Nkoyaphiri tribal land.

We believe that if the recommendations are implemented to free land within the city which is unutilized, this will see property prices somewhat go down thereby easing pressure on demand,
We fear that by dragging its feet to implement the recommendations by Mosienyane & Partners, which were made just over two years ago, government could be sitting on a ticking time bomb which may see land issue becoming a security threat to this country. We are mindful of the problems faced by our neighbours in addressing the land issue and we do not want the same here. We can avert going that direction if we act proactively and address the land issue holistically.

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