16 Aug 2015

Central District Council (CDC) chairperson, Mr Peter Williams has implored Gweta residents in the Tutume Sub-district to make use of Ipelegeng.      

Speaking at a kgotla meeting in Gweta recently, Mr Williams also encouraged residents to undertake projects that can be done at minimal costs.

He was responding to a request from the Village Development Committee (VDC) chairperson, Mr Ledule Baraki who had appealed that there should be a bus stop with shelter in the village where people could be dropped off while the sub-district council awaited funds for construction of a bus rank.  

Mr Baraki noted that currently, buses from either Francistown or Maun used one businessman’s parking area as a bus stop. That, he argued, was not good for people and village image.

Also, he said funds should be availed for gravelling of the village’s internal roads, particularly to the new residential plots area. In response, Mr Williams said the Central district was so wide that with the current limited financial status, they were unable to attend to all their sub-district’s needs.

He explained that they had requested for P1.2 billion this financial year to run the council, but were only given half the amount because of financial constraints government was faced with.

As such, he said they were forced to prioritise on projects looking at areas of need. Thus, he implored residents to make use of Ipelegeng to undertake some of the development projects and a bus stop could be one of them.

Further, he said they had requested funds from the Department of Roads to address the status of roads in the village.     On other issues, the CDC chairperson urged residents, particularly the youth, to take advantage of government initiatives to help in creation of employment for other young people.

However, Mr Williams expressed concern about a majority of unemployed youth despite having qualifications. He further argued that youth failed to create employment for themselves, despite government having availed funds. BOPA