Response by the Ministry of Lands and Housing to Sunday Standard story of 8/2/09 "Government in secret land deals with South African Company"

source: Republic of Botswana (16/2/09): TAUTONA TIMES no 3 of 2009
The Weekly Electronic Press Circular of the Office of the President "Democracy, Development, Dignity and Discipline"

C6) 16/2/09: Response by the Ministry of Lands and Housing to Sunday Standard story of 8/2/09 "Government in secret land deals with South African Company"

In the interest of public clarity, the Ministry of Lands and Housing finds it necessary to respond to a number of points raised in a recent article entitled "Government in secret land deals with South African Company", which appeared in the 8/2/09 edition of the Sunday Standard newspaper. A request for right-of response was sent to Sunday Standard for publication on the 12th February 2009, but they did not honour the agreement. Therefore, we feel compelled to make a public statement to that effect.

To begin with, we wish to reassure the public that, notwithstanding the insinuation made in the above headline; there have been no secret deals between Government and the Tati Company.

Further to the above, the document referred to in the article is nothing more than a recently received proposal by the said Company for Government's consideration. As the Minister, himself noted, any such consideration is now at a very early stage.

We also disagree with the newspaper's suggestion that the Minister was in anyway being "cagey" about the issue. In our view his willingness to candidly talk to the newspaper about the issue demonstrates transparency.