Reflections on Botswana’s 2015 Land Policy

Abstract

This is a study and an interrogation of the Botswana Land Policy approved by the National Assembly on 16 July 2015. This is a review from a legal perspective, appropriately so, because if the Policy prescriptions are faithfully implemented, most of the land tenure laws of the country will be due for revision or overhaul in the coming months. This process commenced with the publication in April 2017 of Bills to amend the Deeds Registry Act and to repeal and re-enact the Tribal Land Act. The objective of this study is to inform and persuade those responsible on areas or issues on which there is need to proceed with extreme caution. The study takes issue with some of the prescriptions in four out of the six substantive parts of the Policy, but it recommends that there is need to think again before formulation of laws that will replace Land Boards with Land Authorities or “de-professionalize” conveyancing in Botswana.