22 Jun 2017

Acting President Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi has urged all Batswana to pray for the ailing second president Sir Ketumile Masire.

Mr Masisi informed residents of Moshupa in a kgotla meeting he addressed at the village on Wednesday that the senior former statesman was hospitalised.

However, he said his family had asked to be afforded time to care for the Father of the nation in private.

Mr Masisi also reminded Moshupa residents that Sir Ketumile had a soft spot for them and their area during his tenure in office.

He said they would forever remember his great sense of humour and great deeds. “He used to come here on a bicycle,” he said.

On other issues, Mr Masisi informed residents that government had borrowed P1.5 billion from the World Bank to address water shortage across the country.

However, he challenged Batswana to appreciate the fact that portable water and fuel were cheaper to buy in the country than in other SADC states because they were subsidised by government.

Mr Masisi, also Member of Parliament for Moshupa/Manyana further informed residents that the P10 million worth of constituency fund for their area would be used to electrify the constituency with solar energy.

He said the project would be carried out by Botswana Institute of Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI) in partnership with the University of Singapore.

Mr Masisi argued that what was particularly special about the project was the fact that the solar lights were manufactured by Batswana, which he added would go a long way in creating employment opportunities especially for the youth.

He said the project would lay a foundation for an electronics industry in the country and urged other Batswana to buy the products .

Mr Masisi explained that the constituency fund aimed at expediting several other competing development projects that could not be done through the usual development budget.

Mr Masisi further challenged district councils to come up with bye-laws that could regulate vehicle sizes for certain roads.

He observed that roads were usually unnecessarily damaged by trucks in the absence of the instrument.

Meanwhile, residents of Mogaung and Diboto wards in Moshupa complained of dire water shortage in their area.

They also shared that most of the water was lost through leakages yet Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) officers were usually slow to react.

For his part, WUC acting general manager Mr Thuso Modise said most of the underground water networks we dilapidated but his company did not have a budget for rehabilitation. BOPA