As the mismanagement of land continue to become a pressing issue in the country, the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftainship, Home Affairs and Police was engaged into a one-day consultative meeting on Wednesday with Berea Heads of Departments (HODs) and Physical Planners with the aim to get their inputs.

During the same meeting,the ministry  enlightened HODs that the National Spatial Development Framework (NSDF) seeks to address the misuse of land and to provide  guidance on the physical development and to promote more resilient, sustainable cities and communities.

When addressing HODs, from the Land Survey and Physical Planning (LSPP) and also representing Commissioner of Land Ms. Mats’eliso Thobeng said it came to their attention that the country is faced with misuse of land, citing that people build where they are not supposed to and that affects provision of service delivery.

Ms. Thobeng said there is always a public outcry regarding lack of water and sanitation, electricity, but failing to scrutinize whether such places were surveyed and planned in the first place.

She pointed out that as the Ministry of Local Government they usually engage in fights with other ministries such as Agriculture regarding the land encroachment on the places allocated for farming.

In regard to the growing concerns, Ms. Thobeng said they saw a need to develop NSDF as a new strategy on how they can address such mismanagement of land, therefore they ministry has a engaged the consultancy company Jakupa-Tony-Mansee JV with the aim to see how the NSDF can be resourceful in solving the issues surrounding land management.

In this regard, Ms. Thobeng said the multi-sectoral approach will be needed to direct the development, housing infrastructure and other forms of land development, hence the efforts to engage the districts in the development of such strategy.

Sharing the same sentiments, consultancy firm Technical Team Leader Mrs. Mantai Seeko said the project objective is to produce the NSDF as a guiding tool to help the ministry as the custodian of land to have a clear framework on land management, again they are going to guide districts to develop their spatial development frameworks and then provide the recommendations on land management in relations to the laws such Land Act 2010 and Towns and Country Planning no.11 of Act 1980.

Mrs. Seeko stressed that Towns and Country Planning Act only highlights preparations of structural plans and development plans and local plans, but it does not entail the preparations of spatial development framework plans and as a result that signifies a gap in law which requires amendment to allow the preparation of the NSDF.

She highlighted that the client being the Ministry of Local Government has requested them to produce at least eight specialist’s reports to guide the NSDF to be comprehensive and the plan is to work on a five years vision exercise aimed to focus on national and economic development and the national settlement and demographic trends.

Representing HOD’s, Administration Manager from District Administrator’s office, Mrs. Makatleho Malataliana said they are worried about the mismanagement of land issues, ranging from land encroachment, land degradation and other environmental factors.

Mrs. Malataliana said through this five years vision they are hopeful the NSDF will yield the impactful result, highlighting that information sharing is very crucial and as a result they are looking forward to mutual partnership for the development of the district and the entire country.

On the other hand, HOD’s highlighted that there are laws guiding the land management issues but lack of compliance and enforcement is a critical challenge, they further stressed that political influence is another challenge causing mismanagement of land, lack of institutional collaboration which has a stake on land management is also a serious concern.

Meanwhile, the similar meeting is set to reach out Maseru stakeholders on Thursday and other southern region districts with the same objective.