LHDA's Response to Mopheme
... continued
- If the household head owned a house/s and is resettled, she/he receives a house build to the same floor area of the one she/he had. The site on which the house is built is fenced and provided with a toilet.
- The resettled household head also receives a disturbance or settling in allowance over a period of three years.
- Along with his/her house/s, properties such as fields, trees, garden-land, outbuildings are also compensated for, based on predetermined calculations.
However, if an individual is not a household head but is legally allocated some property by relatives or bequeathed some property/ies by a deceased household head, only the properties are compensated for. But such individual is not entitled to a resettlement package in terms of the Compensation Policy. He/she can either choose to have LHDA build for him/her a house or opt for cash compensation. The choice is purely that of the affected individual. It is also important to note that such an individual is not entitled to receive the disturbance allowance. This is the point in Mokoatsi Lakabane’s case.
A point of correction on what appears in the December 03-09, 2002 article to be Mothusi's Seqhee’s comment, “According to Mothusi Seqhee………… there is some light at the end of the tunnel for the seven member Lakabane family that they may be finally resettled at the Ha Tsolo in the Maseru district after some hard and long negotiations between NGOs and LHDA.” LHDA wishes to point out that Mothusi has never held any discussions with LHDA on Lakabane’s issue. What is factual is that on November 18, 2002, the project was visited by a Journalist from “The Washington Post” on a fact-finding mission about LHDA’s activities and its interaction with affected communities. The Journalist was briefed by LHDA officials in a meeting which was also attended by TRC, on what had been decided on Lakabane’s issue. The Journalist appreciated the fact that the family had been given options to choose from.
What is also factual is that this Journalist had also lined up some meetings with TRC, where TRC had indicated that they would take the Journalist to some of the areas so that he would get it “from the horse’s mouth.”
For more information please contact LHDA Public Relations on +266 22 318 573/6