Govt. must outsource Land Servicing to Private Sector

Give a man land and you have assured his dignity. Conversely, when you strip a man of his land rights or deny him access to land, you create zombies – the living dead! We understand from cartographers and government official records that Botswana occupies an area of 581,730 square kilometres (224, 610 sq mi), of which 566,730 km2 (218,820 sq mi) is land. However, with a mere population of 2, 3 million people, Batswana complain that they are not allocated land. Applications at Land Boards across the country count in hundreds of thousands, but allocation either moves at a snail’s pace or at worst is non-existent. In major urban towns the situation is pathetic. For example, Gaborone City Council recently sent a Notice through its Facebook page for people that had applied for Self Help Housing Agency (SHHA) plots to come and claim their plots. To everyone’s utter shock and dismay, these applicants were from as far back as the years1989 and 1990 - that is 30 years ago! Therefore, by conservative estimate we can deduce that the chances of a young woman that has just graduated from the University of Botswana and started a job either in Government of Private Sector ever applying and being allocated land in town is zilch! That is unless this young woman makes great sacrifices and saves money to buy property from the open market either from Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) or private estate agencies. This is the reality that the Millennials must contend with. It is the New Normal as dictated by crony capitalism – a system that has bred inequities and inequalities across the socio-economic and political spectrum. Land management, Water and Sanitation Services minister Kefentse Mzwinila has told Parliament that their major challenge in the land sector is the high demand for serviced land in residential, industrial and commercial areas, which has exceeded available supply. He attributes this high demand for serviced land to demographic dynamics and rapid urbanisation – phenomena, which we daresay are not only axiomatic but also inevitable in the course of human existence. Governments are constituted to respond to these challenges, to meet the basic needs of the populace through prudential management and equitable distribution of resources at the country’s disposal. It is not therefore, for governments to cry foul and give excuses of population explosion or rapid urbanisation, when they are called upon to exercise their end of the bargain in this Social Contract. Rather, we expect Governments in concert with the public for which it holds all resources in trust, to find solutions that will ensure that amenities are delivered to citizens. But when Mzwinila continues to complain that land servicing is expensive but the same serviced land is allocated to citizens free of charge in tribal areas and is highly subsidised in state land, we begin to shudder at the unspoken motives and agenda that this government has in mind. Why is it so difficult to outsource land servicing to the private sector using the fabled Public Private Partnership model as part of Government’s Grand Privatisation Plan? Why is Government only preoccupied with privatising parastatals and not services? It is high time that the private sector is brought aboard the National Spatial Plan (NSP), which plan the minister says ostensibly provides direction on where to place developments in a more coordinated and sustainable manner.