Broken promises leave families homeless, elders dead

The Land Tribunal will begin hearing a string of appeals against Kweneng Land Board's controversial decisions to reverse its policy on compensation in kind starting this Wednesday, April 23.This is a move that has sparked fury, despair, and legal action from affected families across Mogoditshane and Gabane.The Tribunal sittings are expected to lay bare years of bureaucratic blunders, internal contradictions, and alleged abuse of power by land authorities, which residents claim have rendered many of them homeless, defrauded, or emotionally broken.At the heart of the matter is a now-defunct compensation policy implemented by the Mogoditshane Sub Land Board, under the authority of Kweneng Land Board, in which residents who surrendered farmland were awarded multiple residential plots.This policy was introduced in response to overcrowding in Kweneng and a growing land application backlog.Under the agreement, individuals who gave up land ranging from one to 24 hectares were to receive between six to 14 residential plots, an arrangement formally approved in March 2019 by the Kweneng Land Board itself.However, years later, Kweneng Land Board reversed the decision, citing irregularities and abuse of the system.They declared the compensation model illegal, attributing its implementation solely to the Mogoditshane Sub Land Board, despite documents proving Kweneng’s own endorsement.This reversal has triggered chaos, with families left to deal with legal uncertainty, financial losses, and emotional trauma.Some had already sold or shared the promised plots with their children, only to be told that the transactions were void, the land illegally allocated, and the buyers entitled to refunds.“We are not asking for much, we just want the land board to keep its promise,” Kabelo Twenty, a vocal member of the Concerned Residents of Gabane, said in a recent interview with The Midweek Sun.“We have knocked on every door in Mogoditshane, Molepolole, the Ministry and there is nothing. I believe the only person we now want to meet is President Duma Boko. Maybe he will hear us.”Twenty believes the land board’s actions reflect a dangerous pattern of institutional impunity.“Our parents surrendered land in good faith. Now, many of them are dead, literally dying from stress and heartbreak because of what the land board did.“Some were given certificates, others were not. Some had their land taken with the promise of plots, only to be told later that the compensation was illegal.”Anderson Pule, another affected resident, says the situation is made worse by selective memory within the land board.“They claim Mogoditshane made the decision, but I have minutes from a Kweneng Land Board meeting showing they approved the very policy they now call illegal. How can they now say it was wrong when they were the architects of the plan?”Suspended Chairman of the Kweneng Land Board, Kgang Kgang, has been at the centre of the controversy.Fingers have been pointed at him many times, especially when he revealed publicly to residents that some land board officers benefited from the scheme, reserving high-value plots for themselves, especially from elderly landowners unfamiliar with legal processes.Pule insisted that the board should have taken responsibility for its mistakes and allowed those who were already mid-process to be compensated as agreed.“They should have drawn the line going forward, not to punish people retroactively. Instead, they have caused confusion, chaos, and pain.”Pule said that buyers who acquired land from the original owners are now being told that their purchases are invalid, and some are demanding refunds from elderly sellers who no longer have themoney.“It is a mess, and it is entirely of the land board’s making.”With the matter now headed to court, residents are expressing concern about the imbalance of power.They worry that their parents are going up against a government institution with resources, lawyers, and influence.“How are they expected to fight back?” Pule asked.One elderly woman from Gabane, who asked to remain anonymous, shared her ongoing ordeal with The Midweek Sun.Her family owned a farm along the Gabane-Kanye road. They submitted papers for land registration but never received formal approval.After years of inquiries and delays, they were shocked to discover that a commercial building is being erected on the land, allegedly owned by a well-known local businessman (names withheld).“We were told to wait for the board’s decision. Now there is a building on our land. They said the board had not met, but somehow this man got approved, on our land?“I do not know how, and I am scared. I am still trying to build my case. I am going to come after them with every fibre in my bones.”She sighed. “I want justice, but I am also afraid.”The Kweneng Land Board saga appears far from over. These latest appeals arise after the board offered compensation to affected landowners; compensation which many felt was grossly inadequate relative to their loss.With land allocation in the area long halted due to the ongoing chaos, families are now forced to crowd into single homesteads, creating tension, family disputes, and a rise in social ills.What is unfolding in Kweneng is not just a local administrative blunder, it mirrors the broader national crisis around land in Botswana.From Gaborone to the furthest corners of the country, stories of unresolved land disputes, delayed allocations, and bureaucratic red tape have left countless Batswana landless in their own land.

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Broken promises leave families homeless, elders dead