The President said since it was government’s responsibility to inform and educate its people, it would ensure that the DailyNews distribution was improved so that it could reach most areas in the country. Furthermore, President Khama said all government departments had been urged to advertise in the paper so that citizens could access vacancies.

The President was responding to the Ikongwe Village Development Committee chairperson, Mr Onyaditse Sepane, who said they did not receive the paper in their village.


Mr Sepane said failure to access the DailyNews hindered them from applying  for employment opportunities from government departments and also from learning and or benefiting from government initiatives.



For his part, the Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Philip Makgalemele, said their mandate was to ensure that the newspaper was distributed evenly across the country.



Mr Makgalemele called on residents to come up with ways in which they could assist in distribution of the DailyNews since their village did not have a Ppost office.


Furthermore, Mr Sepane also cited that a lot of public servants in their village did not qualify for the Remote Area Service Allowance -something which he said might de-motivate them. 
Mr Sepane further asked the Ministry of Health to provide one doctor for their village so as to avoid travelling to Shoshong for thorough medical assistance.


On other issues, the VDC chairperson said they were faced with many challenges in their village, citing shortage of teachers’ houses and lack of electricity. Mr Sepane said there were eight teachers at their school but only five teachers were provided with accommodation forcing others to commute.

The VDC chairperson pleaded with authorities to increase their term of office from two to five years adding that even their allowances should be reviewed
.

In response, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Slumber Tsogwane, said VDC allowances would be looked into because Botswana like the rest of the world was affected by economic meltdown.


However, on the issue of their term being increased, Mr Tsogwane said the guidelines were being reviewed.
On the issue of teachers and nurse houses, the minister pleaded with the VDC to be innovative and build more houses in the village so that they could rent them out to public servants.
 ENDS