21 May 2014

Government has decided to waiver penalties for the national identity cards, known as Omang, between April this year and March next year, chairperson of the Kanye Administrative Authority, Mr Patrick Ralotsia, told councillors during their meeting recently.

Mr Ralotsia said the waiver was also extended to the late registration of birth. The waiver was intended to give Batswana another chance to register for the two important national documents.

About health, Mr Ralotsia told the sub-council meeting that 11 deaths of children under the age five occurred as a result of the diarrhea that broke out in the area. He said, however, that other children’s deaths had underlying causes such as malnutrition, HIV infection and ingestion of traditional medicine.

“Three cases were from Lotlhakane East, four from Kanye while others were from outside our region,” he noted. He said about waste management in the Kanye Administrative Authority that frequent breakdowns of vehicles coupled with delays in the delivery of spares by supplies remained problematic and a challenge to adequately collect waste.

He said however that as people’s representatives, councillors had the obligation to encourage members of the public to keep their environment clean and desist from indiscriminate disposal of waste.

The sub-district chairperson also lamented that the P250 000 that was disbursed in March 2013 for the maintenance of the 25 primary schools within his area of jurisdiction had not been exhausted.

Only P190 000 benefitted 39 journeymen engaged in the maintenance of schools, leaving a balance of P60 000 in spite of the bad state of most of the schools in the area.

He said failure to spend the money meant no maintenance work in some schools and no work for journeymen. Mr Ralotsia told councillors that more than 12 000 hectares of land had been planted by 3 274 farmers in the sub district.

Crops that were planted earlier had matured while those planted after January 2014 were at tussling stage and likely to be affected by frost. Harvesting, threshing and selling of the harvest were already going on in some cases.

He said it was regrettable that ISPAAD funds got depleted before the end of the 2013/14 financial year culminating in the delay to process of payments. However, the situation has since normalised.

“Out of the 3 274 farmers legible for payment, 2 405 have been paid out already and the department was working around the clock to complete the payment process.” Ends