The limitations of state regulation of land delivery processes in Gaborone, Botswana (original) (raw)

2006, International Development Planning Review

The limitations of state regulation of land delivery processes in Gaborone, Botswana This paper assesses the strengths and weaknesses of a state-led land delivery process in Gaborone, Botswana, in particular the extent to which such a process enables the poor to access land with secure tenure. The paper observes that, despite its efforts, the government has been unable to supply suffi cient urban land to satisfy demand, largely because of three interrelated factors: (i) the changing and speculative nature of demands made by middle-and high-income benefi ciaries; (ii) the evolution of a 'culture of entitlement'; and (iii) government reluctance to address the land and housing needs of the poor. Consequently, while the unattainable land demands made by the rich have resulted in a sprawling albeit wellplanned city, the poor have utilised their collective agency to stake their claims by 'illegally' occupying, fi rst, state land within the town and, later, customary land in peri-urban areas. These contradictions and contestations have, in the long run, forced the government to rethink, revise and rewrite its policies and approaches to urban land supply and development processes, although poor people continue to lose out in the struggles over policy, state land allocation and increasingly commercialised processes of informal peri-urban land subdivision. Botswana is one of the few countries in sub-Saharan Africa in which the government has steadfastly attempted to provide adequate land for its burgeoning urban population. Enabled by windfall revenues from mineral resources, the Botswana government has sought to develop orderly, well-planned and adequately serviced towns and cities free from shacks, slums and 'squatter' houses. Although the state has generally achieved its objectives, this success has been attained at the expense of the poor, who have been excluded from mainstream urban development and housing processes. This paper is based on qualitative and quantitative data collected during a study of informal land delivery processes and access to land for the poor in Greater Gaborone, undertaken by Kalabamu and Morolong (2004). 1 The aims of the study were, among other things, to assess the strengths and weaknesses of formal and informal land delivery mechanisms and how each of these enables the poor and other vulnerable groups to access land with secure tenure. The poor are here defi ned as individuals and households who, in comparison to the rest of Botswana's population, are unable to aff ord facilities and services off ered by either the private or the public sector. They include the destitute