11 Mar 2013

Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Olebile Gaborone says despite remarkable progress that Botswana has made in all vision pillars, there are challenges that need to be addressed.

Such challenges, he said, included high school dropouts and poor performance results at PSLE, JCE and BGCSE amongst districts of Kweneng, Ghanzi and Kgalagadi.

Officiating at the smart partnership dialogue organised by the Vision 2016 council in Ghanzi, Mr Gaborone said the challenges put the children at risk of remaining unskilled eventually leading to poverty.

He thus emphasised the need for Batswana to work together with government to attain Vision 2016 goals.

He said while it was important for any government to assist its people, it was equally important for those affected to uplift themselves hence the campaign ‘Living the Vision; Yame le Wena.’

Held under the theme: Transforming from Poverty to Prosperity, the dialogue focused on identifying the challenges faced in the RADS areas and propagated possible solutions.

He noted that the transformation dialogue came at a time when his ministry in collaboration with the Office of the President were working together to address the many problems affecting RADS communities on daily basis.

Mr Gaborone further stated that the campaign emphasised the need for all to live the vision.

For his part, representative from the Khwedom council, Mr Jumanda Gakelebone said a lot still needed to be done as many Batswana did not understand Vision 2016.

He said Batswana especially the RADS communities were dropping out of school in large numbers hence the need to be sensitised in order to pass the importance of education to their children.

Mr Gakelebone was of the view that if the RADS communities were educated, the challenges facing them would be addressed. ENDS