02 Apr 2017

Village Development Committees (VDCs) play a critical role in ensuring that planned developments are carried out.

In an interview, Mochudi umbrella VDC chairperson, Mr Lebekwe said times had changed drastically and the VDC old structures, where mostly the elderly people were in charge were no more and the young people find themselves at the helm of this respectable committee.

Mr Lebekwe said from time immemorial VDC had been at the centre of village development and had played a critical role in each village in the country.

He said roles and objectives of the committee in every ward could not be ignored, hence the need for its members to be recognised, adding that committees acted as the eye and years of government and voiced out the needs of people together with the community social welfare.

He also said the committees  worked with service providers to the communities and engaged them whenever there was a need or community issues.

“We are the link between government departments and ministries, and also act as the watchdog of every little thing that happens in the community or society at large,” he said.

He also said the VDC had been given powers to come up with village development projects that would grow the economy and create employment.

Mr Lebekwe, who is also Moshawana ward committee chairperson, encouraged members of such committees to think outside the box and liaise with relevant stakeholders to come up with projects geared at improving livelihoods.

He said public private partnerships could become handy for the committees as they could partner in business projects that would help grow the economy of Mochudi as well as the district.

Mr Lebekwe further said the umbrella VDC was made of 11 wards and chairpersons of such committees formed the umbrella committee.

He said the duty of the umbrella committee was to oversee projects and make sure they were done as scheduled.

Mr Lebekwe emphasised the importance of working together to bring change to the communities they represented.

“However difficult the journey to lead people can be, we are determined to do our best to carry out our duties and bring change so that we leave a legacy for the coming generations,” he said.

He said VDC was the entry point for official meetings as they were expected to give a report of what was happening in their communities, their achievements and the needs that must be attended to.

Mr Lebekwe further said they intended to work with other committees from other villages of Kgatleng in the future so that they could all pull together and speak in one voice to bring developments to the district.

Nevertheless, he said they were faced with challenges, among them, the workload that had been increased by Ipelegeng programme, noting that as committee members they supervised the progromme together with employees and that had been a mammoth task.

He further said Ipelegeng had seen the influx of the youth, surpassing elders whom the programme was initially meant for, hence the wish that their numbers be reduced because they had programmes tailor-made for the youth.

He said another challenge was that some politicians felt threatened by VDC, especially when there were differences of ideas and opinions leading to conflicts between them.

Further, he appealed to government to consider a living wage for committee members because they had a lot of work, especially because the committee had no other sources of income.

Mr Lebekwe also suggested that the umbrella VDC be provided with transport to carry out their duties as well as a public address system to help announce meetings. ENDS