Lawyers, politicians implicated in Mogoditshane land plunder
High profile personalities among them politicians and lawyers are implicated in the land corruption saga that has dogged Mogoditshane for the longest time with no resolution in sight.
Kweneng District Council Chairperson Kgang Kgang says the corruption was aided and abetted by land board officials acting in cahoots with these high profile personalities as well as some members of the public. The modus operandi entailed one individual accumulating several plots usually through extortion on the promise that legitimate landowners would be compensated with four plots or so in exchange for the sale of their ploughing fields. It therefore baffles Kgang when Batswana then turn around and complain to these ‘greedy’ politicians who stole land whenever they encounter difficulties or problems, say with delays in land allocation or any administrative land administration issue. Kgang is troubled by people who repeatedly report land board to Councillors and Members of Parliament (MPs) and the politicians oblige in turn presumably on account of their status as ‘prominent members of the society.’ “Let me tell you something, politicians will not give you land, only land board will. We are the rightful people to listen to your grievances, do not bring us people wearing coats, they will not help you with anything,” he said. He added that when it comes to land, frustrations are unavoidable because of the long waiting lists but laws need to be followed, and if an individual is not satisfied with service offered, the best thing to do is escalate their grievances to the relevant higher office instead of taking them to politicians. The Mogoditshane land saga has seen little progress being made as far as allocating land is concerned. Mogoditshane has a waiting list dating as far back as 1993/1994 and since January to date, land boards across the country have been busy allocating land except Mogoditshane.
“We are doing all we can to ensure that we allocate land in Mogoditshane, we have a target to allocate 5 000 plots before the end of this year. We believe this is possible and urge residents to cooperate and assist land board to be able to allocate land in Mogoditshane,” Kgang said
He revealed that squatters are the biggest headache and reason why they are unable to allocate land because they grab everything out there. People who take land illegally cause delays because there are processes that are followed when evicting them and sometimes such processes involve going to court. A few months back, yellow monsters razed to the ground properties of squatters near Mogoditshane Senior Secondary School.
At the time, Kweneng land board explained that it had long pleaded with the owners that they were occupying the land illegally and had to move out but they refused to listen.
“We still have pending cases that we are working on, the matters are in court. I urge Mogoditshane residents to report squatters to land board so that matters can be dealt with swiftly,” Kgang pleaded. Another challenge they are facing is that after forcibly evicting people, some return and even boast saying court cases usually drag meaning they can freely occupy and enjoy free spaces until they are evicted through court orders.