13 Apr 2016

Tonota Member of Parliament, Mr Thapelo Olopeng has encouraged the residents of Shashe Mooke to take advantage of the village proximity to Francistown and plan in a way that can contribute to the growth of the village.

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Shashe Mooke on Tuesday April 12, MP Olopeng encouraged the residents to consult the Tonota Sub land board and suggest to it to demarcate industrial plots in their village.

He said by doing so, the residents will be paving way to attract investors and big business people who could not get land in Francistown.

On other issues, MP Olopeng, who is also the Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture informed the residents that last year his ministry came up with strategies that will help speed up payments of Tirelo Sechaba participants, interns and approved Youth Development Fund (YDF) projects.

In his welcome remarks, Kgosi Batshogile Adam thanked the government for considering constructing a Type 2 Tribal Administration office.

He further told the meeting that the groundbreaking of the office construction would be held on April 20 but lamented that the anticipated office did not have a police holding cell.

He requested the government to consider remunerating four of the seven Headmen of Arbitration in the village, adding that with the village’s growing population, the headmen werere engaged most of the time.

For her part, the Village Development Committee (VDC) chairperson, Ms Kenalemang Nono thanked the government for Ipelegeng and poverty eradication programmes.

She said although the government provided help through ISPAAD, the beneficiaries were disadvantaged by lack of rain.

Ms Nono decried that the VDC requested for three LA2 houses, fencing of the cemeteries, school administration block and a weighing room at the clinic through Ipelegeng but were all not approved.

She also requested for the increase of Ipelegeng beneficiaries as the village was hard hit by unemployment.

A resident, Mr Mmoloki Montsho, suggested that qualified referees should be engaged in constituency tournaments as a way of promoting fair play while Mr Molatlhegi Gosenyang requested for grading of all football grounds in the village.

In response, Mr Olopeng explained that Botswana Football Association did not have the capacity to cater for all the 57 constituencies in the country.

He suggested that teams should come up with guidelines that could be used during their games as a way of promoting fair play.

he acting Ipelegeng coordinator, Mr Moratioa Aleseng explained that the Tonota Sub-District, which is made up of three constituencies, was only allocated 1 574 Ipelegeng vacancies due to budgetary constraints. ENDS