31 Jul 2014

Residents of Mbalambi in the North East District have requested government to set up a Special Support Group (SSG) camp in their village in order to improve security.

Residents made the appeal during a kgotla meeting addressed by President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama on July 31. The Village Development Committee chairperson, Mr Samson Dubani said, as the last village before the border with Zimbabwe, Mbalambi was prone to criminal activities.

He said although they were situated between two SSG camps, at Goshwe and Zwenshambe, the distance was too long and the road in a bad state. The VDC chairperson said even when they report a crime while it was taking place, the police failed to arrive on time because of the poor road condition.


Mr Dubani added that the presence of elephants in the area made the situation worse as they destroyed the cordon fence separating the two countries. He said criminals took advantage of the destroyed fence to smuggle goods and livestock.


He said their cattle, which crossed the fence to Zimbabwe, were killed on their return even before they could be tested for any animal diseases.
 He requested for the road connecting Mbalambi, Kalakamati and Zwenshambe to be upgraded to bitumen standard to ease travelling.

He added that the road had proved to be unusable during the rainy season. The VDC chairperson had also requested for the construction of hostels at the local junior secondary school admitting students from the three villages of Kalakamati, Sekakangwe and Mbalambi in order to prevent incidents of students being attacked in the bush on their way to and from school.

Responding to concerns of residents, President Khama informed them that the country was still facing financial constraints and could not set up a new SSG camp in the village.

President Khama also noted that the shortage of security could be a result of manpower shortages, which the police and other sectors were experiencing.

On other issues, President Khama informed residents that the government had set aside P200 million to address shortage of classes at schools and teachers accommodation.

He said he had given the Ministry of Education and Skills Development two weeks to give him feedback on their assessment of schools across the country.

This, he said, would ensure that they addressed the challenge according to the needs of each school, adding that funds would be increased in due course to deal with outstanding challenges.

The acting Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi said there were no plans to construct hostels at the school, but said they were looking at reducing the 10 kilometres to and from school, which students had to travel.


The principal roads engineer from the roads department, Mr Radipata Radipata explained that the road map for Kalakamati/Zwenshambe which bypassed their village was already available, but said they did not have the exact time for the start of the project because of funding challenges.

He also explained that they were still engaged in the maintenance of the many roads which were destroyed by the past heavy rains nationally. ENDS