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27 U. Botswana L.J. 3 (2019)

handle is hein.journals/unbotslj27 and id is 1 raw text is: 3 Botswana's Tribal Land Act of 2018: Confounding Innovations with Congenital and other Defects Clement Ng'ong'ola* ABSTRACT The paper interrogates Botswana's revamped Tribal Land Act, No. 1 of 2018, to tease out, applaud and celebrate its positive attributes, and to decry its shortcomings and weaknesses, which may be newly fangled or carried over from the old, repealed Tribal Land Act, No. 54 of1968. The study shows that much of the new Act is a reproduction of the old Act. It has therefore come into existence with 'congenital defects.' Some of the welcome innovations in the new Act have also been introduced with profoundly troubling elements. On balance, therefore, there is not much to applaud or celebrate in Botswana's Tribal Land Act of 2018. 1 INTRODUCTION Land in Botswana is generally classified as either Tribal land, State land or Freehold land.1 Tribal land, comprising of approximately 71 per cent of a total land surface of about 578, 000 square kilometres, is the largest category, and consequently, the land resource on or from which a majority of the population derive or expect to derive sustenance. It is land which in other African land tenure systems is identified as customary or traditional land, previously occupied and utilised by indigenous communities under various customary laws and practices. On 27 September 1968, a few days before its second anniversary of independence, secured from the United Kingdom on 30 September 1966, Botswana passed a Tribal Land Act which sought to substantially transform tribal land tenure. Forty eight years after this law entered into force, and sixteen months after celebrating its 50th anniversary of independence, Botswana * LLM (Exeter), PhD (London), formerly Professor of Law, University of Botswana 1 See Republic of Botswana, Botswana Land Policy, Government paper No. 4 of 2015 (Government printer Gaborone, 2015) paras 1 and 9 on pages 1 and 2. State land is approximately 26 per cent of Botswana's total land surface, mostly comprising of forest reserves and national parks; and Freehold land is approximately 3 per cent of the land surface, and mostly agricultural land in selected parts of the country.