KWENENG LAND BOARDS PRESENTATION TO MOGODITSHANE THAMAGA DISTRICT COUNCIL ON COMPENSATION IN KIND ISSUES AND KGATLENG LAND BOARD SERVING AS AN EXAMPLE OF SUCCESS IN RESOLVING THE CRISIS AND RELATED ISSUES
Our people are being destroyed out of the lack of knowledge and Our job as professionals is to keep the issues clear and distinct so that even simple minds can comprehend. It is not to create confusion.
The recent presentation by Kweneng Land Board to Mogoditshane-Thamaga District Council on Compensation in Kind in the presence of BATLA was very hypnotic if you do not know the real issues.
Kgatleng Land Board in its resolution to revoke Oodi Sub land Board Resolutions stated thus: ‘You are informed that Oodi Sub Land Board acted out of its jurisdiction in;
- Approving the Change of Land Use of the Ploughing fields to mixed use.
- Presiding and resolving on matters of acquisition and compensation’.
The above was Kgatleng Land Boards’ position and nothing else, but in resolving these matters with the applicants some of which were before the courts the Kgatleng Land Board still went ahead and negotiated sharing these ‘illegally created plots’ with plot owners, the same plots which according to them were illegal layouts became legal when they could take some from plot owners and leave the plot owners with a small percentage sometimes 30% or less and call that ‘compensation in kind’.
Since when has taking plots from someone a compensation? compensation is and will always be paying for what you took and not taking and calling what remains payment. This mathematical nonsense needs to be brought to a sober end.
That is was Kgatleng Land Board boasts was a successful resolution to the impasse and now invites Kweneng Land Board to do the same. These are very interesting people if you ask me.
First of all, what Kgatleng Land Board did to the applicants was unlawful and an act of willful espionage that started with denying people their right to land by conjuring a split between Main Land Board and it’s agent Oodi sub land board to nullify rights and then skillfully manipulate the applicants into frustration so they could concede to an unlawful compensation that is termed ‘compensation in kind’ when it is not a compensation at all but broad day light robbery.
The laws governing acquisition and compensation are legislated and well covered under section 18 and 19 of the Tribal Land Act Regulations. Let me pause here to point out that Kgatleng Land Board does all these ills to Batswana under the watch and guidance of their legal advisors who seem to be like a main stay preferred law firm in the Kgatleng and Kweneng land boards. I mean honestly!
Secondly, Kgatleng issues were mostly around the Oodi-Modipane-Matebeleng-Dikwididi-Mamashia area which did not have a Development Plan whereas Mogoditshane issues are mainly around Mogoditshane-Gabane-Metsimotlhabe-Mmopane-Mmokolodi and Tloaneng which has a Development Plan.
The understanding of the implications and force of law of Development Plans as legislated under the Town and Country Planning Act as a land management tool and is critical to understand but unfortunately it is absent in the minds of our authorities and the lawyers that advise them.
This is the reason why we are embarking on a crusade of a series of master classes under the Land Watchdog Company on the subject of Development Plans to close this gap of ignorance for the nation.
This difference of Mogoditshane and Oodi is important to note in this discourse as it changes the complexion of the issues completely and the land board including their so-called lawyers do not seem to understand this. Now the land boards are weaponized to cause mass suffering and emotional /psychological duress to the citizens of the country.
Section 3 – Town and Country Planning Act
Duties of the Minister
‘The Minister shall ensure consistency in the framing and execution of a comprehensive policy with respect to the USE and DEVELOPMENT of ALL land in Botswana in accordance with Development Plans for Botswana prepared in accordance with the provisions of Part IV’.
The above refers to all land in the Republic of Botswana not some land.
Thirdly, in the Mogoditshane case, Kweneng Land Board had issued a resolution for compensation in kind to Mogoditshane Sub land board to proceed using a template in a resolution dated 25th March 2019 ref: KLB/6/3/1 and in Oodi the Kgatleng Land Board had not.
These are serious differences with legal implications. This resolution must be made public so that all in sundry feast their eyes on it as the officials like to talk on both sides of their mouths when it comes to it, even their legal advisors I am afraid to say.
I should also state at this juncture that the same insanity as in the Kgatleng case which is contrary to common sense and compensation regulations of market value compensation also prevailed in Mogoditshane of land board taking a 4 hectare field that yielded a layout of 40 plots then giving the owner 6 plots and remaining with 34 plots then call that compensation, that’s taking 85% of someone’s land !!! Then they say it’s for equitable distribution, a phrase they love to evoke out of context, equitable distribution is not a justification for the violation of peoples constitutional rights.
I have a right to feed my family, yes agreed, but that does that give me a right to steal from you in as far as stealing is defined by law, to feed my family. Or does it? Tell me !!! You that are wiser. People have rights protected under the Constitution, the right to life and the right to property section 3 and 8 of the constitution is as clear as daylight in this regard and land boards are violating it under the false guidance of strange legal advice.
You do not go and take from a wealthier person that which they have rights over because you want to equalize. If you do take anything you follow the laws prescribed not imagined laws or misused like compensation in kind. I will explain God willing what the real compensation in kind is and it is far from what these twisted land board officials are doing.
Lastly there is persistent mention of Mogoditshane Sub land board officers who acted unlawfully to enrich themselves with plots using the ‘compensation in kind’ scheme, the same was touted by Kgatleng Land Board about Oodi some years back, let me swiftly warn you my brothers and sisters that this is a calculated smokescreen to take away our attention from the real issues of land injustice in our country by rogue land board members who clearly cannot handle the responsibility given to them or are unleashed on the innocent public at the wrong time in history.
We are not stupid and we are not ignorant on land matters as our grandparents were, we know a lot about land and in fact we are here to teach you and not to fight you. We are here to invite you to the Presidential clarion call for mindset change toward the observance of the country’s laws and not a contradiction of them.
No one as far as I know has been convicted for maladministration in the Mogoditshane saga nor the Oodisaga ? So, the casting of aspersions on ghost people and making claims that have no legal basis when the authority has all the state machinery backing it to bring to book any such culprit, but none has been brought to book and found guilty of such since 4 years ago, but we hear it being used to explain the frustration of peoples land rights.
The President in calling for a mindset change was actually calling authorities to obey the laws of the land. Authorities have manipulated these for so long because of their cultural, historical and mental blocks. Not intellectual. If you listen to our
authorities talk about land it is like there are no laws governing them. They just speak and subject the public to their own escapades not consistent with the land Acts, Town and Country Planning Act, Tribal Land Act, Deeds Registry Act, Land Survey Act, Removal of Restrictions Act and ultimately the Constitution of the Republic of Botswana.
Apparently, the chairman of Kweneng Land board was boasting at a Kgotla meeting telling people that when there is a layout on your ‘field’ and land board wants to acquire it they will acquire it no matter what, and going to court is a waste of time because the land board will win.
Nobody I know is averse to repossession or acquisition of their land for public purposes, what people are opposed to is how this is done and what market value is used based on the rezoned land parcels. Land Board acts like the land has not been rezoned.
This is what is illegal and must be litigated on if needs be. People should never be scared off by a guilty bureaucrat who has no concept of the constitutional rights of Batswana. Let’s go to court if we must, He (the land board chairman is not a judge). Cases are not judged in the courts of public opinion like politics, they are judged in court after facts are weighed against the law.
Such mouthing authorities do not understand the cog wheel of legislations and their interconnectivity. They read one act and misinterpret it because of flawed preconceived notions or ill advise from lawyers who suffer the same ignorance or have an ulterior motive.
Theirs is to maintain a stranglehold over the masses under the pretext of looking out for their best interests. An old political game. As they do so they violate laws unbeknownst to the masses. So, our job as professionals is to teach the laws relating to land ownership and management as they are and not as they are perceived to be. Some people thrive under confusion when you deal with them you have to be very scholarly and above board otherwise they pull you down into the mud with them.
They are mud fighters, messy dudes. The job of a professional is to keep the issues clear and distinct so that even simple minds can comprehend. It is not to create confusion. Angry as I maybe, I come in peace seeking only land justice for Batswana.
Our poor people suffered ignorance under white people for centuries, it would be such a sin against self and kind to perpetuate ignorance and confusion in the 21st Century when it is the prophetic time of our rise into knowledge, wisdom and understanding.
Gilbert Sesinyi
Land Rights Activist
Well elaborated , i hope Land board Officials will read between the lines
I learnt so much from your topic. We need people like you to help us from been exploited by people using the law they don’t even understand. Thank You Sir.