13 Jun 2013

Selebi Phikwe East legislator, Mr Nonofo Molefhi says the plan to establish college of applied arts in Selebi Phikwe has been put on hold.

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Botshabelo Ward recently, Mr Molefhi said the move followed research that established that having many vocational training centres in the country would be counter productive and it would be unwise to invest funds in a facility that would ultimately be under-utilised.

Instead, Mr Molefhi, who is also Minister of Transport and Communications, said government opted to upgrade the already existing colleges such as Selebi Phikwe, Moshupa and Gumare among others. He stated that the curriculum for the disciplines or vocational training and apprenticeship courses to be taught at the colleges would have to be set up looking at the type of human resource the economy needed.

Mr Molefhi also explained that due to the fact that there was shortage of lecturers specialising in apprenticeship and other vocational courses in Botswana, government would source out teachers in such fields from other countries such as Zimbabwe.        

He said government was also considering turning one of the places in Botswana into an educational hub.  He cited Boston in the United States of America where students in universities and colleges made up about 75 per cent of the population in the area. He further told the meeting that the plan to construct Selebi Phikwe Hospital had also been put on hold due to financial constraints. 

However, he noted that the current hospital was going under an expansion programme. On other issues, he urged residents to utilise offices of the deputy district commissioner and the town council clerk. He said it was worrying that people were not using offices at their disposal only for them to raise their concerns during President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama’s visits.

He further told the youth who said were denied financial assistance from the youth office in Selebi Phikwe because their projects were to be done in areas such as Mmadinare and Tobane that their concerns would be looked into. He said the youth development fund was meant to assist young Batswana and it would be unfair to deny them assistance based on the fact that their projects should have to be funded from Bobirwa youth office even though they resided in Selebi Phikwe.

Earlier on, the youth had complained that Bobonong was too far from the areas in the vicinity of Selebi Phikwe where they wanted to set up their projects. They requested that they be assisted in Selebi Phikwe.

The residents also complained about the shutting down of stand pipes in Botshabelo ward.

However, Botshabelo Central councillor, Mr Molefhe Molatlhegi urged the residents to connect standpipes in their homesteads saying Water Utilities Corporation was in the process of phasing out stand pipes to replace them with the prepaid ones. ENDS