The North East District has the most contentious land question in post-colonial Botswana. Most of its land was expropriated by a colonial syndicate called the Tati Concessions (Tati Company) in the 1880s. Chunks of said land are still held under freehold titles resulting in the district experiencing severe land scarcity, especially for communal use. In a continuous effort to address this problem, the government purchased 19 freehold farms between 2005 and 2008 (about 20000 hectares) for redistribution. The process was carried out under the leadership of the Tati Land Board and North East District Administration while the chiefs and their communities were marginalised. This oversight and marginalisation of traditional leaders and their communities undermine the Chieftainship Act, which mandates the chiefs to actively promote the welfare of their tribes, inform them about developments and government policies. Using the participatory democracy theory, the article examines this land reform from the point of view of the local chiefs. It concludes that the marginalisation of the chiefs amounted to ‘community exclusion’ rendering the reform anti-redistributive.
There are rising public concerns about the acquisition of prime land by non-citizens/foreigners in Botswana, especially in the sprawling urban and peri-urban areas. Indians, Nigerians and Chinese, among others, are allegedly involved in such land transactions. There is a salient local resentment towards them and/or such transactions. Sensational media reports, emotive public statements by politicians, chiefs and government officials, and anger from ordinary citizens dominate the discourse. These emotive public debates about this issue warrant some academic comment. This article argues that the acquisition of land by foreigners in Botswana, in each land category—tribal, state and freehold—is legally allowed by the relevant laws. But this does not mean that citizens have no right to raise concerns and/or show their disapproval of some of these legal provisions. Aware of the public outcry, the government has since passed the Land Policy in 2015, revised in 2019, and amended the Tribal Land Act in 2018, not yet operational, to try and strictly regulate the acquisition of land by non-citizens. There is no readily available statistical data, indicating the ownership of land by foreigners in each land category. This issue is multifaceted and needs to be cautiously handled, lest it breeds xenophobia or the anti-foreigner sentiments.
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