Kgatleng land war rages on
Land owners dismiss Kgatleng Landboard claims
Kgatleng Land owners and developers say a press conference held by Kgatleng Landboard last week was a shame as the board continued to present information that is deliberately misleading and untrue.
At a press briefing called to address issues raised by landowners who recently petitioned President Mokgweetsi Masisi, Kgatleng Land Board chairperson Esther Serati, said they are still studying an audit report and have already written to beneficiaries of the change of land use calling on them to show cause as to why the same should not be revoked.
Serati said the spate of inappropriately sanctioned change of land use of agricultural land within the area of jurisdiction of the Oodi Sub Land Board has the potential of leading to unregulated, unplanned and incongruous development of settlements; which will in time prove to be costly to service and maintain.
This week the landowners’ spokesperson Gilbert Sesinyi said the argument by the Landboard that moratorium was extended until March 2021 is a disappointing misrepresentation of facts.
He said a moratorium, is meant for client applications more than anyone else. He wondered why a moratorium would be only known to the Landboard and not clients, and for such a long period.
“Kgatleng Land Board
declared a Moratorium on the 2nd September 2020 to 31st October 2020 but on the 18th September 2020 Kgatleng District was declared a planning area, within the time period of the Moratorium.
“As if this was not enough Kgat
leng Land Board boldly claims to have extended the Moratorium of change of land use in a planning area. May be it is just me but I see red when I process these actions by
Kgatleng Land Board in my mind,” said Sesinyi, a Land Rights Activist and Registered Land Surveyor.
He said if the landboard is still assessing findings to deal with its internal competencies and negligence why then do they rush to revoke approvals of clients. “What is the basis of revoking decisions when you are struggling to find basis to deal with those that made the same decisions if they are illegal”?
Serati had told the media that in discharging its duties, the Kgatleng Land Board cannot abdicate its legally given rights to effectively manage land and equitably allocate it. She explained that the landboard will continue to consider all matters on their own merits and to decide accordingly without fear of precedence or undue favour, especially where there is a possibility of perpetuating illegalities.
Sesinyi stated, “the Landboard says they only learnt of the decisions of sub land board recently. The statement is not true.
Even if it was true, it would be gross negligence on their part.
“What do the Main Landboard spend the whole year doing as they do not directly deal with clients? How do they supervise sub landboards? As a matter of fact, all approvals of council after change of land use are copied to Kgatleng Landboard and to the Ministry of Local Government”.
On the sub land board having no powers over change of land use applications, Sesinyi said the statement is not true and the Tribunal as a sister department of Land board has equally misdirected itself.
“Statutory instrument 36 of 2013 gives sub landboards powers to process common law applications. Section 31 of the Revised Policy is clear that Sub Land boards are given authority to make final decisions on all land applications.
“Section 19 of Tribal Land Act says the sub Landboards can perform any function of Landboards. There is nowhere in the regulations or the law where sub land boards are required to make recommendations to the Main Landboard for change of land use”.