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 The concession was originally made by the Matabele King to Sir John Swinburne.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.[1]

The latest act governing and regulating this Concession is that of the "Tati Concessions Land Act of 1970".[2] 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, ...[2] 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"[3] to the effect that all minerals within Botswana, with the exception of Tati Concessions, are the property of the Republic of Botswana.[3]

CHRONOLOGY
  • 1864: Gold is discovered by Europeans in Tati River area (Tati Goldfields), then part of the Matabele kingdom.[4][5]
  • 1870: Concession granted to Sir John Swinburne's London and Limpopo Mining Company.[6][7]
  • 1880 The concession was revoked for failure to pay the annual fee, and the concession was granted instead to the Northern Light Mining Company, a syndicate formed by Danial Francis, Samuel Howard Edwards (1827–1922) and others.[6][7] The Northern Light Company was later renamed the Tati Concessions Ltd.
  • 1893: Tati Land was detached from Matabeleland and placed under the jurisdiction of the British Resident Commissioner of the Bechuanaland Protectorate.
  • January 21, 1911: Annexed to Bechuanaland (now Botswana) via the Tati Concessions Land Act, with a special agreement to preserve rights of access for Rhodesian Railways (now the National Railways of Zimbabwe).[2]

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.[8]

Notes and references

  1. ↑ "Francistown". Botswana Info Directory. Archived from the original on 18 June 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 "An Act to confirm the Tati Concessions, Limited, in the full, free and undisturbed possession as owners of all the land usually known as the Tati District" (PDF). 1911, as amended. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 July 2018.
  3. 1 2 "An Act to re-enact with substantial amendments the provisions that regulate the law relating to Mines and Minerals; to provide for the granting, renewal and termination of mineral concessions; to provide for the payment of royalties; and for matters incidental to and connected to the foregoing" (PDF). 1999. Archived (PDF) from the original on 10 August 2017.
  4. ↑ Harger, Harold S. (1934). "Early Transvaal Geological Map by Carl Mauch". Transactions of the Geological Society of South Africa. 37: 1–4.
  5. ↑ Eriksson, Patrick G.; Altermann, W.; Förtsch, E. B. (1995). "Transvaal Sequence and Bushveld Complex". Mineralium Deposita. 30 (2): 85–88. doi:10.1007/BF00189337.
  6. 1 2 Galbraith, John S. (1974). Crown and Charter: The Early Years of the British South Africa Company. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 32–33. ISBN 978-0-520-02693-3.
  7. 1 2 Quick, Geoffrey S. (2001). "Early European involvement in the Tati District". Botswana Notes and Records. 33: 27–39. JSTOR 40980293.
  8. ↑ Thy, Peter (2003). "The Revenue Stamps of Bechuanaland" (PDF). Forerunners (45): 60–63. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 February 2007.
Sources

Further reading

  • Kedidimetse, Puso (25 October 2017). "Old Tati: Bechuanaland's ancient commercial centre". Daily News. Botswana. Archived from the original on 30 July 2018.


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