The Kweneng Land Board, through its Lentsweletau Sub Land Board, is threatening to demolish hundreds of illegal residential plots at Lekgabaneng and Lekgatshwane at Mmatseta Village which is located a few kilometres from Metsimotlhabe, beginning April next year.
Addressing a kgotla meeting, an official from the Kweneng Land Board, Wonder Keabilwe, told the residents that the decision had been taken after it was realized that some residents are selling their officially allocated plots in the village and instead reside at “masimo” or ploughing lands.
Keabilwe said people are now building residential houses at the “masimo”.
However, the Councillor for the area, Patrick Gabanamotse, has urged the land board authorities to do thorough consultations before they demolish the homes built at the ploughing fields.
He also advised the residents to exercise extra caution and put temporary shelters on their lands to avoid losing millions of pula to the current government.
“I still fail to understand why government allocates land to Batswana and later turn back against them,” he said.
Gabanamotse told the Sunday Standard that government is failing to pay poor residents what they deserve, when paving for the development from which they don’t benefit but from which certain individual do.
“I don’t want to see my people facing the same challenges as those at Ramaphatle Village where people have to run for their lives when they refused to vacate,” said Gabanamotse.
Though government is trying to bring economic development, it still fails to come up with a sustainable alternative as a remedy to those residing next to their lands but just demolish and give them little compensation.
He wondered how government can you say each ploughing land should have one household for a family, what about grandsons.
“Government says there is shortage of land and at the same time doesn’t allow them to divide their lands and come up with an estate which can be an investment to them,” he said, adding that government says the land should be divided only into 4 hectares and more but not two hectares in a ploughing field.
“How can you tell a family how to run its business? I think here government is too restrictive to innocent people.”
Keabilwe was not in a position to state how many people will be affected but promised to conduct further assessment and assist those to be affected and on some measures to take.
