AN MP, her husband, and a former senior police officer are locked in a bitter dispute over some piece of land with the Thaba-Tseka Technical Institute (TTI). The school wants to eject the Thaba-Tseka MP ’Mamamello Holomo, her husband Mosiuoa Holomo, and the former district police boss Senior Superintendent Litsietsi Selimo from a piece of land it claims belongs to it. The TTI falls under the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) department.
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The school, together with the Ministry of Education principal secretary and the ministry itself are the applicants.
They are arguing that the Holomos and Selimo unlawfully built their houses in the school yard.
In their court papers, they said the trio were warned that they were building in the school compound but they disregarded the warning and continued to build.
The school submitted a letter it wrote to the trio in their court papers.
The TTI director, Khotsofalang Rabale, wrote a letter of notification to Selimo on October 24, 2018, warning that he should stop the construction as the land belonged to the school.
On August 26, 2020, Mosiuoa Holomo was also slapped with a letter warning him that the land that had been allocated to him belonged to the TTI.
However, they continued building their structures on the land despite a call not to do so.
The Holomos are erecting a residential home on the land while Selimo has built a restaurant, having leases with plot numbers 39361-036 and 39361-037.
The leases were issued by the Thaba-Tseka Urban Council, who are the fifth defendant in the case.
The school told the court that the allocation of the land in dispute by the council was unlawful because the land was already lawfully allocated to it.
The TTI said it has been using the land for years without any interference.
“The respondents should be ordered to vacate from the land of the TTI,” the court papers said.
Further, the school told the court not to incline to grant the Selimo and the Holomos the expenses that they had incurred in building the structures because they had been warned before they could do anything on the site.
“Yet they decided to build and make the improvements on the site which they did not have the title,” the school said.
The school informed the court that it had title over the land in dispute and that the two families are “presently in an unlawful occupation of the disputed land”.
“Despite being warned, they continued with construction and improvements.”
As a result, the TTI said it has suffered irreparable harm because it had been dispossessed of the portion of its land which it had intended to build more structures to be used by the students to advance their skills.
Majara Molupe
