While Tawana Land Board (TLB) continues to make strides in allocating land across its jurisdiction, the board is still however concerned by some invited applicants who do not turn up for allocation interviews.
The board has since urged all invited applicants to present themselves for interviews or send a representative with a sworn affidavit to ensure their participation in the allocation process.
In an interview, the board’s public relations officer, Ndiye Frank Joel noted that un-serviced land is one of the main reasons why some people do not show up especially in rural areas. According to him, some people still opt to be allocated in areas where services such as water and electricity connections as well as accessible roads among others are already available.
“Some look at the economic factors, they want to be allocated near towns or areas where there are developments. This is one of the main contributing factors why people don’t attend our allocation interviews. They want to be allocated plots where they can be able to rent their houses and make income,” Joel indicated.
He noted that this they do bearing in mind the one man one plot policy in which a person can only be allocated one residential plot in a tribal land.
But Joel stated that the issue of developments is work in progress for government assuring applicants that such services will surely be availed to them as times goes on. He highlighted that there is nowhere across the country where land boards allocate plots where there are already developments.
“Yes we acknowledge it’s not good to allocate where there are no developments but Batswana needs land so it our mandate to give them that, we want them to have a place where they can stay while awaiting for such services,” he said.
Tawana Land Board continues to make strides of reaching its set target of allocating 17000 plots contributing to the national one of 100 000. So far, the board has already allocated 14436 but Joel indicated that they are already nearing their target as they continue with allocations across their area.
After having recently allocated in Kaputura and Tobera, the Gumare Sub Land Board recently indicated that there are about 1134 residential plots ready for allocation in the new layout at Etsha 6. The sub land board commenced the allocation of residential plots in the area beginning of this week, where a total of 118 applicants were invited for interviews on daily basis.
By the close of business on Monday, a total of 73 plots had been successfully allocated. Of these, 42 plots were awarded to the youth category, while the remaining 31 plots were designated for the adult population residing in Etsha 6, surrounding villages and the recently incorporated wards. The allocation process continued until yesterday (Thursday).
“Looking at the fact that Etsha 6 is far from developments as people complain, the turn up for allocation interviews in the area was however very impressive,” the spokesperson observed.
