The North East District has the most contentious land question in post-colonial Botswana. Most of its land
was expropriated by a colonial syndicate called the Tati Concessions (Tati Company) in the 1880s. Chunks
of said land are still held under freehold titles resulting in the district experiencing severe land scarcity,
especially for communal use. In a continuous effort to address this problem, the government purchased 19
freehold farms between 2005 and 2008 (about 20000 hectares) for redistribution. The process was carried
out under the leadership of the Tati Land Board and North East District Administration while the chiefs
and their communities were marginalised. This oversight and marginalisation of traditional leaders and their
communities undermine the Chieftainship Act, which mandates the chiefs to actively promote the welfare of
their tribes, inform them about developments and government policies. Using the participatory democracy
theory, the article examines this land reform from the point of view of the local chiefs. It concludes that the
marginalisation of the chiefs amounted to ‘community exclusion’ rendering the reform anti-redistributive.

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