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| Workshop Report on Land Problems in Botswana Particularly in Peri-Urban Areas (Mogoditshane)
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| 9. Recommendations, Issues of concern from the Study of the Evictions in Mogoditshane and Surrounding Villages – by Prisca Mohlahlane |
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9.1 Short term
- An urgent intervention by sectors such as the NGO to come up with interventions to address the immediate crisis of homelessness in the area.
- There is need for discussion between sectors such as the NGO and government through the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Environment on how Land Board deals with cases of evictions. This should include putting in place a system through which the Land Board could deal with these issues.
- Urgent action is needed to look into the inconsistency occupants have raised about the Land Board operations. There needs to be a strict code of guidelines to follow evicting people not on how the land board officer felt at the time.
- The other inconsistency was the use of witnesses to testify that a particular person had been living in the area for a certain length of time (the witnesses could be chief representative, a ward head, a neighbour etc
- There is need for the Ministry in charge to come up with an effective monitoring system, which would force some of the land board officials to be accountable, particularly in the way they deal with members of the public.
- In the Kgabo Commission concern was raised about land board officials’ poor public relations approach to the general public. Not only did it seem that this situation remained but it has been made worse by the pressure exerted on the land board to complete the eviction. The mechanisms used by the Land Board as a result of this pressure were such that they were punitive and at times disregarded any rights of the occupants. The emphasis was on demolishing the dwellings. Some land board officials have been heard to say that the people in those areas had no rights as they had broken the law.
- Government of Botswana has shown commitment in addressing gender inequality through some policy such as National Gender Programme Framework (1998) and National Policy on Women in Development (1996). These rights should be addressed
- The casual labourers employed to demolish should be properly informed and trained. These casual labourers should be put through basic public relation skills considering that they were involved in a very sensitive issue such as land.
9.2 Long term
- There is general lack of information on the land tenure system. In the past not enough consulting and public information was done.
- There was need for a consultation between the two sides rather than a top down approach on the land policy document.
- Citizen Participation, to build a culture of human rights awareness and commitment, promoting an enabling economic environment has to come from the major groups in the society – NGOs, media and business, local as well as national government, parliamentarians and other opinion leaders. All these can be achieved mainly through public education, which allows people to be critical about social issues and express their views.
- NGOs particularly those that deal directly with Human Rights as an area of concern, could also work with government in ensuring that the present situation of evictions do not repeat itself in the future.
- Government has shown openness and willingness to uphold human rights, by ratifying various international human rights instruments such as Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women – CEDAW, Convention on the Rights of the Child CRC, International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. NGOs should lobby Government to take this commitment further and sign/ratify the Convention on Social & Economic & Political Rights and also implement it.
- Botswana constitution does not explicitly guarantee one the right to shelter or land NGOs, as initiators of alternative debates can engage government and other stakeholders to lobby for a change of the constitution and use models such as The South African constitution, see under The Bill of Rights.
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