14 Mar 2013

Government is aware of the importance of small-scale enterprises in the country’s economy.

Hence, discussions with the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) were at an advanced stage to come up with a waiver to allow Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) in the rural areas to tender for government goods and services even when they did not meet some minimum tendering requirements.

President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama told a kgotla meeting at Werda in Kgalagadi District on March 13 that it was significant to support SMMEs, particularly in the rural areas.

On other issues, he said there were plans to upgrade Tsabong Junior Secondary School into a senior secondary school in the next financial year.

Government, he said, was not in a position to construct a new senior secondary school in Kgalagadi South due to financial constraints, but pointed out that the upgraded school would be a unified school and would admit students from form one until form five.

President Khama was responding to a request from Kgosi Keleofile Phehadu of Werda who had asked the government to build a senior secondary in Kgalagadi South.

Kgosi Phehadu said students from Kgalagadi South travelled a long distance to attend school at Matsha College in Kang. He also complained about shortage of water in the village saying the problem incapacitated some of government’s poverty eradication projects in the area.

For his part, Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, Mr Kitso Mokaila said the ministry was aware of the water shortage in Werda.

He said the five boreholes that supplied Werda with water were adequate to meet the water demand, but watering of livestock had created the shortage of water in the area. He however noted that the situation would improve if an extra borehole could be identified to provide water for livestock only. ENDS