26 Mar 2017

 All villages in the country will benefit from the P10 million allocated to constituencies to undertake community projects.
This was said by President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama when addressing a kgotla meeting at Mowana ward in Mahalapye on Thursday.
President Khama said this when answering a request by Mowana ward Village Development Committee chairperson Mr Orelebile Baatweng who asked government to create long term projects for Ipelegeng programme.
Mr Baatweng said they were happy that government was doing all it could to create employment for Batswana through programmes such as Ipelegeng, Gender Affairs and poverty eradication initiatives, but they were not satisfied by projects carried out through the Ipelegeng Programme.
He cited that in their ward, Ipelegeng Programme only did minimal jobs like bush clearing and cutting down of trees, something which he said was not of much importance but wanted long term projects which would benefit the community in future.
President Khama said through these funds most villages would be developed as the government decided to inject money into community projects which would be carried out through ipelegeng.
On other issues, President Khama advised residents of Mahalapye to visit health facilities so as to get medical assistance.
He said previously many lives were lost before the introduction of ARVs, noting that in recent years people live normal healthy lives and the rate of deaths due to HIV and AIDS has gone down.
He advised people to take their medication be it for Diabetes, High Blood Pressure and diseases as prescribed by doctors and nurses seriously so that they could be controlled.
Earlier on Kgosi Duncan Segotsi of Mahalapye decried bad state of roads left by recent torrential rains around Mahalapye Sub -district.
Kgosi Segotsi said the rains left many roads in a bad state making life difficult for motorists. He said potholes had increased both in numbers and size making roads difficult to access.
He also pleaded with the government to provide them with a grader which could be used around the district to maintain these roads.
On that, President Khama said people should be thankful for the rains even though they brought with them a lot of damage to infrustructure.
The President also donated 30 chairs to be used by Mowana residents at kgotla gatherings and the VDC, 50 blankets for the elderly and less privileged, a football kit, four balls and 10 Bibles.
For his part, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Mr Slumber Tsogwane said they were aware that most roads around the country were damaged by rains but were doing everything in their power to maintain the roads.
Mr Tsogwane cited that in Mahalapye they had already started with Mahalapye/Machaneng road overpass, after the road had been damaged by recent rains, which left the road in a bad state.
On ipelegeng projects, Mr Tsogwane noted that it was not true that they only did minimal projects like bush clearing but explained that they also engaged in bigger projects like maintenance of government buildings and long term projects which could be useful to the community.
He said they also engaged in litter picking, something which was good for communities as the environment had to be kept clean to avoid disease outbreaks. ENDS