01 May 2017

The Chobe District Council has approved the pavement of Lesoma road which will be followed by the tarring of the road.

The gravel road, which is about 1km from the main A33 highway, has been a cause for concern during the rainy season.

“Phase 1 will be underway as funds for the project are available and tenders for the road are out so we only await the construction of the road which will be paved before it is tarred,” said Lesoma councillor, Mr Patrick Majola in a kgotla meeting recently.

With the road tarred, he said buses using the A33 road would now be able to drop off people in the village, as in the past they could not because of the bad state of the road.

Currently residents have to drop off in Kazungula which is about 10kms from their village for them to get transport back to Lesoma.

He further stated that Lesoma would not only be receiving road developments, but that newly allocated plots would also be serviced. “Lesoma Primary School will also benefit from the Economic Diversification Programme (ESP) as new blocks of flats will be built to increase classrooms, and they will also have new ablution blocks built as part of the developments,” said  Mr Majola.

He urged the community to use the facilities to their advantage by applying for jobs that would be available instead of allowing people from outside the village to occupy the jobs.

He said he was concerned that residents were not taking advantage of the many government empowerment programmes such as those of gender affairs.

However in their response, residents complained about what they said was poor service delivery from the gender affairs department, saying several of their grant proposals were rejected.

“I submitted my project and it was rejected after several visits to their offices, and they never called me to give me feedback as I stayed for four months without hearing from them until I went to their offices and I was told my proposal has been rejected, but they never called to tell me,” said one of the residents.

They also complained that shortage of land was prohibiting them from doing their projects, as it was difficult to get a grant without land or business premises.

Kgosi Lesoma also notified residents of the gym equipment that President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama donated to the village recently after they made a plea during his last visit, and urged the villagers to use it as it was open to the community. ENDS