Kgatleng Land Board uplift moratorium after Masisi’s petition
A pariah and law unto itself
Kgatleng land owners have accused the Kgatleng Land Board of becoming a law unto itself. They accuse the Board of administrative overreach and violation of the laws and constitution of Botswana like a pariah entity.
These accusations come after the landboard this week Monday put a Public Notice in the Kgatleng Land Board Facebook page to the effect that it is uplifting a Moratorium which expired on the 31st October 2020.
The land owners argue that the Moratourium was never renewed or reinstated.
“This purported ‘ uplifting’ implies that the Kgatleng Land Board maintained such a Moratorium from the 31st October 2020 up to 24th May 2021, such action was unlawful as all moratoriums are subject to a formal and public notice.
“This therefore puts to question the authority which the Land Board used to refuse applications since 31st October 2020 up to 24th May 2021. As of 18th September 2020, Kgatleng District has been declared as a Planning Area, through an order published in The Gazette on equal date.
“The effect of that in law is stated in Section 5 subsection 1 through to 4 of the Town and Country Planning Act. Kgatleng Land Board is neither a Planning Authority nor ‘ the Responsible Authority’ duly appointed through section 36 subsection 1 and 2 of the Town and Country Planning Act”, argued the Kgatleng land owners.
The uplifting of the Moratorium comes a few days after the Kgatleng land owners petitioned President Mokgweetsi Masisi on the matter.
This week the land owners pointed out that Kgatleng Land Board is determined to maintain an unlawful and illogical pattern of denying Batswana their land rights regardless of the law.
They explained that the trends in their ( landboard) history is riddled with repossessing fields from Batswana in direct contravention of the tenets espoused in Section 8 of the Constitution of the republic of Botswana.
“It is in effect unlawful for the Kgatleng Land Board to clandestinely usurp such ‘ Powers of Change of Land Use’ in Planning Areas. The Public Notice from Kgatleng Land Board states that ‘ those applications that were at the time of the moratorium pending or not yet considered will now be considered by the Oodi Sub Land Board.’
“Our question to Kgatleng Land Board is what authority or law would Oodi Sub Land Board be exercising in the Kgatleng Planning Area by so doing?,” the land owners wondered.
The Public Notice from Kgatleng Land Board states that ‘ applications that had been decided by the Oodi Sub Land Board will await the decision of the Kgatleng Land Board.’ This according to Kgatleng land owners is “ludicrous, to say the least, and to have been made by a Public Authority, it is inexcusable”.
They implored that the law forming the premise of such statute or policies be divulged for public consumption. “We are in query of whether the decisions that must await ratification from the Kgatleng Land Board- having been made by the Oodi Sub Land Boarddate as far back as 2010, the year of the inception of the Oodi Sub Land Board! Our prayer is that such answers be awarded the public as a matter of urgency,” they argued.
The Public Notice from Kgatleng Land Board further states that this excludes applications for change of land use for ploughing fields to mixed use layouts which are suspended until further notice, pending the review of the agricultural guidelines by the department of town and country planning.
The land owners questioned why mixed- use layouts have been suspended.
“We humbly submit to the public that such suspension is unlawful and a direct sabotage of the gains to Batswana that would result in the implementation of President Mokgweetsi’s Masisi’s Directive Cab 14( A)/ 2019 Facilitation for Efficient Land Utilisation,” they stated, adding that applications for conformance to Mmamashia- OodiModipane- Dikwididi Provisional Development Plan which Kgatleng land board and Kgatleng District Council currently use as their guiding document are being blatantly refused such conformance permission and the concocted impression of adhoc developments in Kgatleng is a broad daylight falsehood as the Provisional development plan is being followed .