29 Jun 2016

Good Hope Sub district senior assistant council secretary, Mr Robert Rabasimane says the sub district management team and its councillors acted within the ambits of the law when they embarked on a retreat and benchmarking trip to Kasane.
His explanation follows sentiments by councillors from three other sub districts that make up Southern District Council during the ongoing full council meeting on Monday in Kanye.
Majority of councillors felt there was inconsistency in as far as retreats were concerned.
They said whereas there was clear correspondence from both the ministry  permanent secretary and district council secretary addressed to all sub districts that advised against engaging in trips outside the district as a cost saving measure, Good Hope sub district still undertook the said trip.
Nominated councillor, Ms Mavis Tshiping expressed her misgivings on the matter, stating that Moshupa sub district councillors had upon yielding to the correspondence decided to go as far as Lobatse for a retreat.
It was at that moment that Southern district council deputy chairperson, Mr Alec Seametso called on Good Hope sub district senior assistant council secretary to shed more light on the matter.
Explaining, Mr Rabasimane acknowledged receiving letters of correspondence from both the permanent secretary and council secretary that barred sub districts from embarking on trips outside their respective districts as a cost cutting measure.
“We also undertook to write to both the permanent secretary and Southern District Council to try explain our intent to go for a retreat but were never responded to,” Mr Rabasimane said.
He said however that prior to embarking on the trip, they tried in vain to look for cheaper facility within the district.
It was then that the management team and councillors settled for Kwalape Safaris in Kasane which was much cheaper especially that councilLors agreed to contribute P500 each for transport as a cost saving measure. ENDS