16 Aug 2016

Member of Parliament for Tonota, Mr Thapelo Olopeng, has implored youth to venture into business.
Addressing a kgotla meeting at Seroto ward in Tonota on August 15, Mr Olopeng said his ministry of youth, sport and culture faced challenges of unemployment and therefore urged parents to edge their children to utilise government programmes.
Mr Olopeng said they intended to improve the youth programmes to cater for other young people because not all could entrepreneurs.
He encouraged parents to assist their children to register and package business plans since that would take young people off the streets.
Mr Olopeng also advised young people to read DailyNews, watch Botswana Television and also listen to Radio Botswana to hear more about government programmes and initiatives that would benefit them.
He also informed Tonota residents that the district hospital, internal roads and street lights were among top priorities during his tenure as the area MP.
In addition, Mr Olopeng said his dream was “to ensure that the constituency is independent from Francistown in terms of access to health services.”
He noted that having a district hospital in Tonota would relieve Masedi Clinic of congestion and reduce the distance travelled by patients to Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital in Francistown to access services that could be provided by a primary hospital.
Furthermore, Mr Olopeng said lack of internal roads and street lights deterred investors from doing business in the village.
In his welcome remarks, Kgosi Lesitamang Molebeledi of Seroto ward raised a concern on high crime and bad behaviour among young people in his area.
He also advised his people to apply for identity documents as well as birth certificates for their children so that they could access medical services.
He noted that some people had a tendency of ignoring their health while others stayed at the cattle-post until the last minute.
Kgosi Molebeledi said he had realised that most of school-going students were involved in smoking marijuana.
In response, Mr Olopeng said it was upon parents to teach their children values and norms noting that ‘charity begins at home’.
He encouraged parents to ensure that children grew and behaved as responsible citizens.
Teachers, he added, could not transform education into solitude.
However, he appreciated Village Development Committee for generating the funds to undertake some developments. ENDS