ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS

PART I
Preliminary

SECTION

1.        Short title and application

2.        Interpretation

3.        Duties of Minister

PART II
Central Administration

4.        Declaring of planning areas

5.        Constitution of Town and Country Planning Board

PART III
Development Plans

6.        Preparation of development plan

7.        Revision of development plan

8.        Making of development plan

PART IV
Control of Development of Land and Permission for Development

9.        Provisions as to development

10.        Development order

11.        Planning permission for development

12.        Decision of Town and Country Planning Board

13.        Method of applying for planning permission

14.        Referral of applications to Minister

15.        Appeals

16.        Supplementary provisions as to grant of planning permission

17.        Revocation and modification of planning permission

18.        Enforcement procedure

19.        Supplementary provisions as to enforcement

20.        Penalties, etc., in connection with enforcement notices

21.        Continued operations of enforcement notice

22.        Transfer of planning functions

23.        Trees and woodlands

24.        Advertisements

25.        Supplementary provisions as to advertisements

26.        Injury to amenity

27.        Special buildings

28.        Supplementary provisions as to building preservation orders

29.        Lists of buildings of special architectural or historic interest

30.        Effect of inclusion of a building in a list under section 29

PART V
Subdivisions

31.        Prohibition on making subdivisions without consent

32.        Approval of diagrams and registration of deeds

33.        Submission of applications

34.        Consideration of applications

35.        Appeal to Minister

PART VI
Supplementary

36.        Powers of entry

37.        Powers to require information

38.        Regulations

39.        Planning permission issued under previous laws

40.        Temporary provisions pending operation of development plan

41.        Application to land regulated by other enactments

42.        Act to bind Government

First Schedule

Second Schedule

Act 11, 1977,
S.I. 95, 1980.

An Act to make provision for the orderly and progressive development of land in both Urban and rural areas and to preserve and improve the amenities thereof; for the grant of permission to develop land and for other powers of control over the use of land; and for purposes ancillary to or connected with the matters aforesaid.

[Date of Commencement: 1st August, 1980]

1.       Short title and application

            (1) This Act may be cited as the Town and Country Planning Act.

            (2) Parts II, III and IV shall apply to the planning areas declared under section 4.

2.       Interpretation

            In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires-

            "advertisement" means any word, letter, model sign, placard, board, notice, device or representation, whether illuminated or not, in the nature of and employed wholly or in part for the purposes of advertisement, announcement or direction, and, without prejudice to the foregoing, includes any hoarding or similar structure used or adapted for use for the display of advertisements;

            "agriculture" includes horticulture, fruit growing, seed growing, dairy farming, the breeding and keeping of livestock including any creature kept for the production of food, wool, skins or fur, or for the purpose of its use in the farming of land, the use of land as grazing land, meadow land, market gardens and nursery grounds, and the use of land for woodlands where that use is ancillary to the farming of land for other agricultural purposes;

            "appointed day" means the day appointed by the Minister for the coming into force of this Act in any planning area;

            "Board" means the Town and Country Planning Board constituted under section 5;

            "building" includes any structure or erection and any part of a building as so defined, but does not include plant or machinery comprised in a building;

            "building operations" includes rebuilding operations, structural alterations of or additions to buildings, and other operations normally undertaken by a person carrying on business as a builder;

            "building or work" includes waste materials, refuse and other matters deposited on land;

            "building preservation order" has the meaning assigned to it under section 27;

            "development" has the meaning assigned to it under section 9;

            "development order" has the meaning assigned to it under section 10;

            "development plan" has the meaning assigned to it under section 6 and includes a plan made under subsection (5) of the said section 6;

            "engineering operations" includes the formation or laying out of roads and of means of access to roads;

            "erection", in relation to buildings, includes extension, alteration and re-erection;

            "land" includes a building;

            "minerals" includes all minerals and substances (including oil and natural gas) in or under land of a kind ordinarily worked for removal by underground or by surface working;

            "owner", in relation to any land, means a person who, in his own right or as agent for any other person, is entitled to receive the rent of the land, or, where the land is not let, would be so entitled if it were let;

            "permission granted for a limited period only" has the meaning assigned to it under section 11;

            "planning area" means an area declared by the Minister under the provisions of section 4;

            "subdivision", in relation to land, means the division of any land (other than buildings) held by one person or held by a number of persons indivisibly into two or more parts, and "subdivide" has a corresponding meaning;

            "tree preservation order" has the meaning assigned to it under section 23;

            "use", in relation to land, does not include the use of land by the carrying out of any building, engineering, mining or other operations thereon.

3.       Duties of Minister

            It shall be the duty of the Minister to secure consistency and continuity in the framing and execution of a comprehensive policy with respect to the use and development of all land in Botswana in accordance with development plans for Botswana prepared in accordance with the provisions of Part III.