03 Feb 2015

Kgosi Gillard Letsholathebe of Letsholathebe has expressed concern over the harbouring of illegal immigrants by residents. 

Speaking during a kgotla meeting addressed by Member of Parliament for Tati West, Mr Biggie Butale recently, Kgosi Letsholathebe said such people treated the police as enemies whenever they stepped up efforts to clean up the village of illegal immigrants.

He said the situation was sad as police officers stationed in their village often encountered resistance and a total lack of cooperation from such residents when they needed to arrest the illegal immigrants.

He said this was disheartening because residents knew it was against the law to employ foreigners who did not possess residence and work permits. A Letsholathebe resident, Mr Allison Sikele however attributed the practice to the high fees payable to government by those who needed to engage foreigners to work for them.

He said with the two permits costing P1 500 each it was not easy for locals to attempt to try to make subsequent applications for permits if the initial application was not approved since the application fees were non-refundable.

Another resident, Mr Joseph Pelaelo however expressed worry at the rate at which Batswana continued to flout the very laws put in place for their own good. He called on the village leadership to convene a meeting to allow residents to devise strategies through which to solve the problem.

On a different matter, residents complained that disabled children in their village were being denied their right to education.

Mr Alfred Letsholathebe said they had been informed that there was no transport to take the disabled children from their village to Moroka where there is a special education unit.

As a result, he said the children had had to drop out of school.

He observed that had the road linking their village with Masunga been on a good state, there would have been no hindrance to the children’s transportation to and from Moroka to attend school.

He thus appealed to government to consider tarring the road to ensure that the situation did not re-occur in the future.

In response to the issue of disabled children, a North East District Council official, Mr Kabelo Gulubane admitted that indeed the children had been denied the right to education.

He explained that since such children needed a special vehicle due to their disability, the council did not have a vehicle suitable to transport them to Masunga to join those being picked there on a daily basis.

Mr Gulubane however assured the residents that the council was working on finding a solution to the issue, expressing hope that the situation would be addressed in the near future. 

Responding to the concern on the fees for applying for residence and work permits, MP Butale concurred that the application fees were indeed high, and could contribute to locals hiring foreigners without following the right procedures.

He noted that the issuance of temporary permits to applicants would probably solve the problem and minimise loss of money through rejected applications. Mr Butale promised the residents that he would ensure that the issue received the attention of the relevant authorities. ENDS