The report presents the findings of the study commissioned by The Botswana Council of Non Governmental Organisations (BOCONGO) and The Botswana Christian Council (BCC), to look into the nature of land problems in Mogoditshane and surrounding villages,
The study was commissioned to research the people affected by the demolitions who were asking for the NGOs for help with a variety of problems who felt that the Mogoditshane Sub Land Board was inconsistent when carrying out the evictions.
Some of the problems of the evictions were homelessness; children who leave school because their home is no longer there; lack of understanding of what the evictions are based on, the Land Board did not consider facts of their cases. Another complaint was the sense of fear and insecurity caused by the presence of the Special Support Group (SSG) this was made worse by the fact that some people from the community of Tsolamoses, had been shot by the SSG (with rubber bullets).
The Ministry of Lands Housing and Environment mandated the Kweneng Land Board to carry out demolitions of houses in Mogoitshane and surrounding villages. They were also under pressure to complete the work by the end of June 2001. The demolitions form part of a project called "Mogoditshane Project". Government allocated P11 million for this project. The reason for the demolitions according to the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Environment, is that people are in the way of development due to illegal occupation of land in the mentioned areas. In an interview with the Minister of Lands Housing & Environment, he noted that in 1989 there were 15000 'squatters' in the areas of Mogoditshane and its surrounding villages. The Minister went on to say that in the year 2000 there were 2400 so called 'squatters' occupying land, which, is meant to accommodate 5000 people.
It should be noted however that the problems of squatters/illegal development in these areas go back many years and as a result are complex. The complexity emanates partly from inaction by government, action that could have arrested or reduced the situation of self-allocation of land (see Kgabo Commission on Land Problems in Mogoditshane and other Peri-Urban areas). The Commission was held in 1991, Government came up with a White Paper in 1992, which was based on the same Commission. No action was taken by Government to implement the white paper until November 2000, almost ten years later. Hasty short term solutions to deal with the different problems in these areas are likely to give birth to more problems which have to be dealt with later.
The Ministry of Local Government Lands and housing, made a decision in April 1999 after seeking advice from the Attorney General, to compensate people who have been allocated land by field owners in Mogoditshane, (so called 'squatters'). Those people who were compensated were categorized as;
- Those who acquired the land from field owners before 8 July 1994.
- Those who acquired the land illegally but have been in occupation of the land for thirty consecutive years without disturbance.
- Those who regularised their tenure by payment of a fine of P5000.
- Those who acquired plots lawfully.
The compensations were carried out and over two hundred people were compensated. In September 2000 the Ministry of Lands Housing and Environment gave the Kweneng Land Board a directive to demolish the houses of people who were said to be 'squatters' (this included those people who have been allocated land by field owners) in the areas of Mogoditshane and the surrounding areas. The directive overrides the decision to compensate people.
Government has set a precedent, which raised legitimate expectations on the part of the people/'squatters' who were not compensated. When the question was raised with the Minister in charge, the answer was that, the decision to compensate 'squatters' was made by technical officers. The Minister went on to say that these technical officers should not have taken the decision. In the Minister's words, "A mistake was done and government cannot afford to correct one mistake by another mistake". The Minister also emphasized that demolitions have to be carried out in order to deal with illegal occupation otherwise, the Ministry will be failing to carry out its mandate of delivering land.
The general feeling in the Ministry is that the problems in the areas of Mogoditshane and surrounding villages are legal as opposed to being a result of social conditions that forced people move to these areas. The emphasis is therefore that the problems should be dealt with through legal means.
The Kgabo Commission has shown that the so-called 'squatters' in these areas were forced by social conditions to occupy land illegally. Government on the other hand has demonstrated its determination to deal with the problem through legal means by ensuring that there are no loopholes in the Land Act and other related legal documents.
By introducing amendments to these policy documents. The latest such amendment is that of the Customary Land Act which was done in November 2000. This Amendment clarified the jurisdiction of chiefs on land cases. The opinion of some legal practitioners is that this case further strengthened the amendment as well as the position of Government, i.e. to opt for evictions.
The report focuses on specific issues (as spelt out in the terms of reference), which can be a basis for discussions between the civil society and the authorities concerned. As already mentioned the problems of land are complex, the report is therefore not conclusive. There is need for a broader study on land and the problems thereof.
The occupants were low-income earners and they were the ones who built the dwelling i.e. they were not tenants. Majority of these people moved to urban areas to look for employment and could not afford to pay high rentals in Gaborone not even the SHHA plots. Generally the informants had a vague idea of the function of the Land Board. They seem to think that land administration was a function of the Land Boards and chiefs assisted by ward heads. There was lack of understanding of the land tenure system and the existence of the different leases, which govern land use.
There was general confusion among the occupants on the evictions even though 'kgotla' meetings were held by the Ministry of Lands, Housing & Environment to inform people about the evictions. This was partly a result of being reassured by some politicians in the run up to the 1999 elections that Government would not demolish their houses.
The office of Directorate of Corruption & Economic Crime (D.C.E.C) acknowledged that a number of complaints have been reported to their office about the operation of Land Boards, although the D.C.E.C did not disclose the nature of complaints/allegations.
The issue most commonly raised was that of inconsistency of the Mogoditshane Sub- Land Boards. The occupants claim that the Land Boards office told some people that they were in the way of developments and others who lived in the same area were left alone. Other occupants claimed that some people have been allocated land even when allocations were put on halt. They went on to say that there were people who had applied for land at the same time some were allocated and others were not but the Land Boards gave no explanation for the different treatment.
The present evictions could also affect economic and social development in the sense that those occupants who were involved in informal trade such as fixing cars, selling food are displaced and children were taken out of schools when their house is demolished.
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