22 Aug 2017

Assistant Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Mr Biggie Butale has told residents of Gulubane, Mambo and Masingwaneng that government has decided to invest and develop Ntimbale dam to make it a tourist attraction site.

Addressing kgotla meetings in these villages Mr Butale who is also MP for Tati West stated that government would invest P250 million of which P3 million would be channeled towards a consultancy report for the dam.

Mr Butale said Ntimbale dam was beautiful hence it would create employment for residents in surrounding villages if turned into a tourist site.

He further highlighted that registration of a trust was underway which would manage the dam adding that if all went well development would start end of 2018.

The assistant minister stated that with the rehabilitation of the Francistown Nata road, villages within 10 kilometres would benefit from this through access roads connecting them to the main road.

He said an access road from Hubona to Gulubane would be constructed as they fall within the 10 kilometres mark.

However he stated that Masingwaneng and Mambo villages would not benefit from this because of the distance.

Mr Butale briefed the residents on the just ended parliament session, the laws and policies that were passed.

He highlighted that parliament passed the National Registration Amendment Bill which gives the national registration office powers to investigate cases where parents delay to register Omang for their children.

He further said this laws also provided that family members of a deceased person should return the deceased’s Omang to avoid issues of fraud.

The assistant minister told residents that the Tribal Land Amendment Bill was also passed which provided that land boards should issues a title deed for tribal land.

On other issues, he briefed the residents that he would cycle from Masunga to Gaborone in October to raise funds for all the schools in his constituency to be computerised and connected to the Internet.

The youth in Gulubane told the minister that youth initiatives did not reach them indicating that there was discrimination.

Residents said there were dissatisfied with the fact that the access road would go up to Gulubane and leave other villages out. They further said their roads were in a bad state which resulted in damages to their cars.

They also stated that government should consider building hostels at Pelaelo Junior Secondary School because their children were traveling long distances to school.

Mr Butale advised the community to come up with ways to raise funds for the hostels in Pelaelo which he said would motivate government to assist. ENDS