Masunga — Tati Land board is negotiating with farm owners with a view to buying land for onward allocation to people on the waiting list.
Mr Fidelis Machola told a kgotla meeting in Msingwaneng recently, that 39 per cent of land in the North East District was freehold while 61 per cent was held under leasehold.
He decried reluctance to sell by some farm owners, saying that resulted in delayed allocations.
"In the meantime, we go around villages locating in-fills to address the ever-growing waiting list in the district," he said.
There were 63 017 applicants when applicants' numbers were tallied this year, he said. Of that number 11 773 were struck off because some were deceased while others owned land elsewhere. He explained that children could not inherit their parent's waiting number.
Mr Machola said the land board's aim was to allocate 6 000 plots per year. He said business plots did not form part of the waiting list since they were tendered for and allocated to those who qualified. He explained that the new land policy allowed tribal land plot to compete with those on urban areas.
"All tribal land is planned for, surveyed and base maps produced. These enhance the quality of plots to carry the same value as those in towns and cities," he said.
With regard to plot transfers he said inherited plots attracted a P200 service fee while those needing transfer following a donation or purchase were charged P3 000.
Mr Machola appealed to people to pay their lease fees saying the board was owed over P20.5 million in business leases.
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A resident, Mr Khulekhani Magede wanted to know the procedure for applying for ruins.
Mr Machola Explained that an application had to be submitted, but warned receipt of the application was no guarantee an allocation would be made.
Mr Moruti Zebedia raised concern that the lease the for churches rose from P10 to P500 which was expensive.
He suggested that plots for churches should not be tendered for like businesses because churches were not profit-making.
Ms Elizabeth Mangubo wanted to know what happened in the event that an applicant was absent during allocation.
In response, Mr Machola explained that it was advisable for the applicant to contact the land board office and explain their reasons of absence so that they could to be invited to the next meeting.
BOPA
