Tati Concessions Land


The Tati Concessions Land was a concession created in the borderlands of the Matabele kingdom and the Bechuanaland Protectorate. The concession was originally made by the Matabele King to Sir John Swinburne. It was administered from the Bechuanaland Protectorate after 1893, but after 1911 was formally annexed to it, finally becoming a statutory creature by its first piece of legislation, the Proclamation Number 2 of 1911 by the High Commissioner of Bechuanaland. It was locally administered by a Justice of the Peace.
The chief town of this region is Francistown, now one of Botswana's major settlements.
The latest act governing and regulating this Concession is that of the "Tati Concessions Land Act of 1970". The most controversial provision in this act can be found in Section 6, which states that The right to all minerals and precious stones under the land in the Tati District is reserved to the Tati Concessions, Limited, and also the right of prospecting for and working the same,... The effect of this section is that mineral rights are bestowed unto this body, which is unlike other mineral rights in Botswana which are governed by Section 3 of the "Mines and Minerals Act of 1999" to the effect that all minerals within Botswana, with the exception of Tati Concessions, are the property of the Republic of Botswana.

Chronology

The Tati Concessions, Limited, was formed by Swinburne and given the right by the British Government to issue its own Revenue Stamps in 1896 for use on legal instruments. The Tati Concessions Limited ran into financial difficulties in 1914 and sold much of its land. The successor company, Tati Company, is registered in the United Kingdom. After independence, a deal was reached in February 1970 with the Government of Botswana under Seretse Khama. While many of its lands were donated or sold, it gained extensive mineral rights.