In an unusual case at the Francistown Land Tribunal, an attempt by the Chobe Land Board to go back on a promise it had made to Pandamatenga residents fell flat on its face. As a result, the President of the Tribunal, Bannister Mokakangwe, has ordered the Land Board to allocate 2500 hectares of farmland to 266 households in Pandamatenga.
The applicant was Kgosi Rebecca Banika who is Pandamatenga’s traditional leader and her witnesses were Tengenyana Tuelo who represents the village in the Chobe District Council and Martinus Kruger, a Pandamatenga commercial farmer. In “its quest to delve nose-deep into the veracity of [Banika] and her witness’ assertions”, the Land Tribunal itself subpoenaed Stanley Semetsa, who was coordinator of an agricultural project in Pandamatenga. Banika was pursuing this case on behalf of residents who had been promised farmland.
There's more to this story
But to keep reading, we need you to subscribe.
Investigative journalism is an indispensable part of a healthy society, but it's also expensive to produce. We are reliant on subscriptions to fund our work, and while you can enjoy most of our stories for free, a small number of premium features are reserved for subscribers.
You can subscribe for one week, a month or a full year - the choice is yours.
Save 77% on an annual subscription. Click here to find out how.
Existing subscribers can log in to keep reading here.
