Kgatleng Land Board Secretary, Roslyn Kedimotse, is denying that they are disregarding Court of Appeal orders by not having demolished some houses in Mochudi’s Raserura Ward a year after the owners of the houses had their appeal case struck off the roll of appeal cases.
Kedimotse said that they delayed in implementing the Court of Appeal decision in order to give the owners of the houses time to exhaust all remedies available to them, adding that she was aware that some of them are still begging for administrative leniency and that they have not rushed this so that they deal with this matter in a humane manner.
Asked when she thinks they would implement the ruling of the Court, Kedimotse said, “We will do so as soon as consultations with the concerned people are concluded,” adding that she was not able to place a time period on that.
She also stressed that they are committed to implementing the Court judgment as they are the ones who had approached the Court on the matter and were favoured by the judgment.
Implementing the judgment, she explained, will help them to carry out the developments which were earmarked for the land on which the houses stand. According to her, the land was earmarked for the development of a stadium.
The home owners initially lost the case in the High Court but they then appealed to the Court of Appeal where they once more lost as the Court felt that the first judgment’s findings that the land on which the houses stood was not properly acquired was right.
Amongst those houses is the house of the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation Chief Executive officer, Thapelo Lippe.
Sources say the houses are amongst the most luxurious in the village and that it would be a sad thing if they were demolished.
“Those houses are very luxurious and their owners are sure to suffer great financial losses if they are demolished,” said the source.
In a related case in Mochudi, a new building still stands unused on what used to be Mochudi Wholesalers in the Mochudi Mall.
This has apparently resulted from the fact that the Council had refused to give the owners of the plot a license on grounds that the building was not built in accordance with Council rules as it was never inspected during construction as was supposed to be the case.
The building is also reported to have encroached onto another piece of land.
In a new development regarding the building, the building was last week struck by lightning . It is reported that this is the second time the building has been struck by lightning.
The case concerning this building was in the past referred to former President Festus Mogae who then referred it back to the Kgatleng District Council.
All attempts to get the Kgatleng District Council Secretary Jimmy Nsala to comment on the issue were futile as he was said to be away on official duties.
