07 Sep 2017

President Lieutenant General Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama has said Cabinet has taken a decision to buy Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) houses to increase government pool houses to curb shortage of accommodation for public officers across the country.  

He said this at a kgotla meeting in Sepako yesterday, noting that such efforts by government would also be paired with the Economic Stimulus Programme which was running for three years, in which public officers housing was one of the priorities.  

President Khama emphasised that accommodation for public officers would continue to be a priority, which  government would remain dealing with.  

The President was responding to Kgosi Joseph Ramaditse of Sepako, who had said they appreciated eight houses built for public officers through ESP to address shortage of accommodation in their village for public officers.  

Kgosi Ramaditse however appealed to the President that there was still shortage of accommodation, hence they should be considered for more houses.  

President Khama said  government had established a criteria to address issues of payments for headsmen. However at the time they started making payments, the number of unpaid headsmen escalated, leading to shortage of funds and delays in covering all that were  supposed to be covered.  

Kgosi Ramaditse had asked the President to look into working conditions of Tribal Administration staff as well as headsmen of arbitration who were still not being paid,

He therefore appealed to Bogosi to do away with situations of creating wards (dikgotlana) unnecessarily to the extent that some hardsmen only had a handful of people to lead.  

In addition to the President’s response on payments of headsmen, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Mr Slumber Tsogwane said in the last two financial years, they had 65 and 213 respectively and to date the latest statistics stood at 633, which required P23 million annually to cover them all.

He said since the economy was still recovering from recession, they would see if funds permiting they could have all dikgosi covered.

Meanwhile President Khama donated blankets, chairs and Bibles to the village. ENDS