09 Dec 2014

The Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Frans Van Der Westhuizen, is aware that the chief representative for Lotlhakane East has transport challenges.

Answering a question in Parliament on December 8 from the MP for Kanye South, Mr Abram Kesupile, Mr Van Der Westhuizen said it was worth noting that chief representatives and other government units in the village never benefitted sufficiently from the one vehicle per village initiative because of shortage of vehicles.

He said in 2003, Lotlhakane East kgotla was provided with a vehicle but since the post of a driver had not yet been created, the vehicle was deployed to Kgomokasitwa with a clear instruction to regularly service Lotlhakane East which is 10 km away.

In addition, the minister said the vehicle was never returned since it was boarded in July 2009 and currently Lotlhakane East is assisted by Kanye. The process to procure a replacement vehicle is ongoing during the current financial year, 2014/15, he added.

The assistant minister however, admitted that ideally each government department should have a vehicle in each village, but because of resource constraints, this has not been possible; hence the introduction of one vehicle per village initiative. 

MP Kesupile had asked the minister if he was aware that the chief’s representative for Lotlhakane East was seriously constrained to discharge his duties since the one vehicle per village initiative was not working for him and other government units in the village, adding that a vehicle once allocated to him prior to this policy never serviced his office as it was borrowed upon arrival for use elsewhere and never returned.

He had also wanted to know when the vehicle would return or be replaced and whether the minister would consider reviewing the one vehicle per village policy so that all government units in Lotlhakane East could have vehicles. ENDS