20 May 2014

The Assistant Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Keletso Rakhudu has decried drug abuse in most schools.

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Gaborone's Tsholofelo South on May 19, Mr Rakhudu said drug abuse in schools had become the second largest problem in the country after HIV/AIDS.

He said community junior secondary schools and tertiary students were involved in drug abuse, adding that at some point, his ministry nearly took a decision to use sniffer dogs in schools to search for drugs in student bags but such a decision was suspended.

However, he said government would re-consider such a decision because of the increasing numbers of students involved, adding that a larger percentage of these youngsters had experienced use of drugs.

The assistant minister said the problem was exacerbated by some irresponsible parents who sold drugs to the students and appealed to every parent to play his/her parental role in moulding these children.

On other issues, Mr Rakhudu told the residents that the country had not yet recovered from the economic meltdown, hence government failed to increase salaries for civil servants for the past few years because of budgetary constraints.

He noted that the ministry had been allocated P44 billion for the financial year 2014/2015 under the recurrent and development budget. The funds, he said, would be used to undertake planned projects.

The ministry, he said was allocated the largest share of the national budget, followed by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. However, the assistant minister said government has managed to cut most of its debts and that government would do its best to provide Batswana with developments.

Minister Rakhudu also appealed to Batswana to welcome the visiting teams from different countries that would be participating in the 2nd Africa Youth Games billed for May 22 to 31.

Mr Rakhudu, who is also the area MP for Gaborone North appealed to Batswana to vote in large numbers in the up-coming general elections scheduled for this year.

He said it was every citizen’s constitutional right to vote a government of their own choice but warned the residents to guard against foreigners who might participate in the election.

For his part, Broadhurst Station commander superintendent Bonosi Molapisi appealed to residents to partner with police to fight crime by forming neighbourhood watch scheme which would help keep their communities safe.  

This partnership, he said, involves the police, community safety departments of local authorities, voluntary organisations and above all, individuals and families who want to make their neighbourhoods better places to live in.

He said neighbourhood watch also protects peoples’ properties and reduces fear of crime by means of improved home security, greater vigilance, accurate reporting of suspicious incidents to the police and by fostering a community spirit.

For their part, residents complained of the uncollected litter in their homesteads and failure to connect homes to the sewer system. They also suggested that repeated offenders should not be granted bail. Ends