15 Jun 2016

The Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration, Mr Eric Molale, has encouraged the public to embrace the 50th independence celebrations.

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Pitsane in the Good Hope-Mabule constituency recently, Mr Molale said every Motswana had to celebrate this year’s independence celebrations as it marked Botswana’s 50th year of existence as an independent country.

Mr Molale therefore implored every Motswana to ensure that they play a role in ensuring success of this year’s celebrations.

He said September 30 would not be like any other day, as the country would be celebrating its golden jubilee.

Despite ideological and political differences, Mr Molale said this country still upheld its democratic principles.

He encouraged Batswana to continue upholding this democracy through the 'therisanyo' model, which built the country.

He indicated that the country had also launched the vision 2036 task force that was crafting the vision pillars , which would also be made known to Batswana come September 30.

On other issues, Mr Molale encouraged Pitsane residents to take advantage of government programmes by the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture as well as Gender Affairs department to uplift their living standards.

He said government has made a decision to review some of the programs after the realisation that beneficiaries were taking long to be funded even after being trained.

He therefore said the relocation of funding from various ministries and departments to the office of the district commissioner is expected to fast track the start up of the projects applied for by beneficiaries.

He also encouraged, government programmes beneficiaries, especially the youth, to exercise patience and work hard in order to bear positive fruits of their labour.

He advised them not to splash the first profits of their businesses but to rather plant them back into the business in order to grow the businesses.

In his welcome remarks, Kgosi Boiki Leshomo appreciated the visit by the minister, saying it was a move in the right direction.

Kgosi Leshomo said it was very important for ministers to address such kgotla meeting as people are always informed and get first hand information.

He appreciated government for coming up with programmes geared towards uplifting people's living standards such as the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) which especially gives the local businesses opportunities for growth.

Kgosi also applauded the Botswana Defence Force and Police Service for the hard work they have put through and worked hard to fight cross boarder crime. 

He said the village has been marred by a lot of animal theft of which these animals were stolen and sold across the boarder as his village shares a boarder line with South Africa, a thing he said was worrisome. He said, however the two force services have worked hard to reduce the crime rate.

In their comments, villagers were concerned about the less developments that were taking place in their village, citing the non tarring of internal roads.

They also decried water shortage in their village and called on the minister to have talks with the water authority for it to up its game in its service provision.

Residents also raised a concern on the newly engaged company responsible for providing pensions to the old age, saying it was not living up to their expectations adding that its service was very poor.

The village Development Committee Vice Chairperson Ms Kenaope Makaka also requested for the maintenance of the primary school citing its dilapidated state especially in classrooms.

Ms Makaka also requested  government to consider constructing hostels at Montshiwa Senior Secondary School to cater for students who walk long distances from various villages in the constituency to attend school.

She also requested for the increase in staff houses especially at the Barolong Vocational Training Center. ENDS