04 Aug 2016

 President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama has informed residents of Thamaga that a road from their village to Kubung will be constructed this financial year through Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP).

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Thamaga yesterday, President Khama also informed the residents that government had since prioritised provision of water and electricity services and has as such availed about P1.5 billion to Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources to fund related projects.

The President however said because of financial constraints, availing the P1.5 billion meant that government had to forgo other development projects elsewhere.

He cautioned Batswana to not be surprised when they got reports that there were no funds for certain projects because funding could have been diverted to water and electricity services.

The President said as for the boot camp organised by Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development for former Matsetsenkane and Merubise gangs which had been terrorising Thamaga residents, funding had been sourced from the alcohol levy which had collected around P1.5 billion since its inception thus far.

He said the boot camp was to try to re-tool and mould the youthful gang members into better persons. He said though the amount collected was a sign of increase in alcohol consumption, the levy had come handy to assist youth boot camps.

On the issue of graduate teachers not being absorbed in the Ministry of Education and Skills Development, the President said he had raised concerns with private schools for employing more foreign teachers when a good number of local teachers were roaming the streets.

He however, assured residents that education ministry would not employ foreigners where there were qualified local teachers.

President Khama has promised to follow up and ensure that concerns and complaints raised by the residents were addressed and resolved as promised by ministers and officials.

Kweneng education director, Mr Benson Rauwe informed the meeting that there were no vacancies to absorb more teachers into the system and a good number of Moral Studies, Setswana, English and Social Studies teachers were in the streets. He urged parents to encourage their children to study courses related to Science, ICT and business which were in demand currently.

For his part, Thamaga umbrella Village Development Committee chairperson, Ms Tshepo Dimere commended the hosting of World Telecommunication Day in Thamaga which she said ushered in a lot of development in the village such as donation of ICT equipment for use by the community and some schools.

She pleaded with government to ensure that the unified senior secondary school was put in place as promised. The chairperson reasoned that students from Thamaga who were schooling at Moshupa senior school were being bullied and discriminated against by some other students from Moshupa and this may be addressed if a unified senior school was provided in their village.

Ms Dimere called on Botswana Power Corporation to speed up village extension exercise in terms of increasing electricity transformers so that more dwellings who had been rejected ‘because they are not on the map’ when applying for connections got connected to electricity grid.

During the comments session, residents implored the ministry to speed up distribution of electricity to areas which were not covered in the previous electricity extension exercise where some residents had applied for almost 25 years now with no success.

They were however, informed by Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, Mr Kitso Mokaila that funds permitting, his ministry intended to distribute electricity and connect all to the national power grid.

He said currently the ministry did not have resources to undertake such exercise, but would continue to seek funding to address such complaints.

In his welcome remarks, Kgosi Gobuamang Gobuamang decried shortage of water in some parts of the village mainly due to many pipe leakages in the village .

He called on the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to improve working conditions of headmen and recording secretaries working in his Kgotla. ENDS