17 Jun 2015

The Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Eric Molale has said people’s right for governance does not end with ballot paper.

Addressing kgotla meetings in Tsau and Semboyo recently, Mr Molale said people should have a say in a democratic set up and also appreciate government effort to develop the country.

He said Batswana have the right to contribute to the way their country was being managed and embrace service delivery and urged public officers to inform themselves on government policies and procedures in order to serve the public diligently.

Speaking to public servants at the end of the two Kgotla meetings, Mr Molale noted that he had mixed feelings about the service delivery of some public officers, looking at concerns raised by the communities.

He said it showed that some officers were not serving their people well as developments were lagging behind. He thus advised public officers to be united and correct those whose service delivery fell short of expectations.

The Minister noted that funds for public officers came from the same coffers though they (public officers) were serving different departments and units; hence they were accountable to one another.

Furthermore, Minister Molale advised residents of the two villages to change their traditional practices of rearing cattle such as leaving calves to go untended for six months which he said caused concerns. This, he said led calves to be killed by predators.

He also promised the residents of the two villages that he would take up their concerns on agriculture, human and wildlife issues with the relevant ministries which he said were complex and affected people emotionally.

Tsau Village Development Committee (VDC), Mr General Kuhanga thanked government for packages such as small stocks, though, he raised concern that some projects took long to be implemented after the recipients were approved.

He also said people on welfare programmes faced challenges of high prices in stores in Tsau and were forced to travel to Maun or Gumare for better prices.

Kgosi Ebineng Potsoeng of Tsau said there was a stand-off between Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), National Development Bank (NDB) and cattle farmers in his community. He said although some farmers have cleared their debts with NDB, it was unfortunate that BMC collected money from them whenever they sold cattle. ENDS