04 May 2017

President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama has donated blankets, chairs and Bibles to Monong residents during a kgotla meeting at the settlement on Thursday.

Welcoming the President, Kgosi Donald Molefe of Monong settlement in the Hukuntsi Sub -district applauded him for “his visionary leadership” and programmes geared towards empowering Batswana.

Kgosi Molefe commended President Khama for traversing the entire country to keep in touch with the day to day lives of the ordinary Batswana.

He said President Khama’s  visits were a true reflection of part of his patriotism and his drive to empower Batswana and cushion them from the hardships of lives.

Kgosi Molefe acknowledged government’s devotion to providing an enabling and conductive environment towards the needy especially settlement dwellers as a way of developing and empowering them through various schemes and programmes.

He commended the Ipelegeng programme in particular  for  contributing  to improving the lifves of many who had limited means of survival particularly in poverty stricken communities in rural areas.

He highlighted that even though the  Ipelegeng  programme’s main objective  might be  to provide short term employment support and relief while at the same time carrying out essential development,  its positive impact in Monong  he said was evident.

Kgosi Molefe also applauded  government for the provision of electricity in his settlement but however pleaded with government to subsidise the connection fee a lot more since the current fee was unaffordable to many residents.

He also called on government to upgrade his role from head man of arbitration to headman of records, highlighting the population increase as the key factor towards the Bogosi upgrade plea.

In response to Kgosi Molefe’s request for upgrade, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Slumber Tsogwane indicated that his ministry would assess the request but explained that the upgrade would not be anytime soon since upgrading also came with tribal administration infrastructure development, something which he said was not in the current national development plan.ENDS