10.10.2012
OIDUS FOCUS
Registered at GPO as a Newspaper Volume 2, Issue #8
NEWS > 02 Local Architects to Speak at SA (GBCSA) 03 International News Feature: Markets Briefs: Zambia, SA and USA.
Botswana’s Architecture Design & Urban Landscape Newspaper
www.boidus.co.bw
BOIDUS EXCLUSIVE >
BOIDUS FEATURE >
EDITORIALS > 02 Housing Petition Demands 04 Property Valuers Accused of Price Inflation
FEATURED EDITORIALS > 08 How the ‘Garden City’ failed. 13 Safeguarding a special Place.
BOIDUS CLASSIFIEDS > 10 8-Tips for Pricing your home 10 Property Price InflationLearn from Experts
P5.00 (Including VAT)
As Botswana Turns 46, We Reflect On Our Building Heritage.
For “a nation without a past is a lost nation, and a people without a past are a people without a soul.” by H. Killion Mokwete
Do Property Valuers Inflate Property Prices?
Minister K. Matambo (MFDP), REIB President Maje C. Maje , Dr Keith Jefferis Economist by Kibo Ngowi
Minister of Finance and Development Planning Kenneth Matambo made a public statement last month alluding to an alarming trend of property valuers overpricing property, warning that it could lead to a market crash in future if the phenomenon was not nipped in the bud. The assertion
was supported by Botswana Building Society (BBS) Managing Director Pius Molefe who remarked, “We plead with property valuers to avoid overpricing houses because it defeats the purpose of the society of housing Batswana.” >>> CONTINUED PAGE 04
[Top] Original Painting or Trinity Church Bailey ‘73, Courtesy of Gill Jones [Bottom Left] Panoramic View of Old Orapa House Source: Botswana Official Handbook ‘84
HOUSING PETITION DEMANDS
Immediate Land Audit, Review BHC Mandate and Impose Hefty Tax on the Unused Freehold Land by Kibo Ngowi
A group of citizens frustrated with the lack of affordable housing in Botswana have decided to address their complaints to the Minister of Lands and Housing through a petition demanding that immediate steps be taken to improve the situation.
For roughly three weeks the petition, which aims to collect 50, 000 signatures in order to show the impact of the problem before presenting it to the minister, has been circulating online and through printed copies. In an interview with Boidus, the informal group’s publicity secretary, Joe >>> CONTINUED PAGE 03
[Bottom Right] The Main Mall Street View 1976 Source: Facts on Botswana
In the true words of our Nations founding father, the late Sir Seretse Khama, “a nation without a past is a lost nation, and a people without a past is a people without a soul.” This timeless saying should not only be our guiding principle in anything that is our past but also in how we treasure, celebrate and jealously protect our historical and heritage buildings. If only he could see what has become of our building heritage, he would be turning in his grave. Thirty two years since his passing and to date
there is not a single authority, nor ministry which can be seen to provide leadership or patronage to our building heritage. Our historical sites and buildings, one after the other are mercilessly razed down for shiny new ones or worse still left to rot and become home to stray animals.
such as one in The Village, Francistown, Kanye, Dibete and many others, the story is the same, that of neglect and a disappearing past.
The departments which are meant to be torch bearers in safeguarding these sites are either playing truant or just plainly could not be bothered to act. From Lobatse’s heritage buildings, Gaborone’s original buildings
How the ‘Garden City’ Concept failed in the making of Gaborone by H. Killion Mokwete >>> GO TO PAGE 08
Lobatse – Safeguarding A Special Place by Sandy Grant >>> GO TO PAGE 13
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