02 Oct 2017

 President Lt. Gen Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama has assured residents of Seronga that some of their challenges will be urgently looked into by relevant ministries to see how best to address them.

Residents had in a kgotla meeting addressed by the President, complained about lack of access to services, shortage of ambulances at the clinic, vehicles for kgotla, social worker and maintenance of two ambulance boats.

They also complained about the long distance they took to Shakawe to access services and asked for a youth officer to be deployed to Seronga for easy access of youth programmes and a mini fuel point at Seronga Police which would be under the custody of Botswana Defence Force and service all government vehicles.

President Khama emphasised the need to consider giving villages across the Okavango River a special dispensation as they had difficulties crossing the river to access services at Shakawe.

He said the river had divided the constituency thus creating two areas.

He said it was ideal for relevant ministries and departments to look into the matter and come up with a solution.

 “This is a special case which needs to be given serious attention because residents have to cross the river to access some of the services in Shakawe which is far,” he stated.
President Khama said every constituency was supposed to have its own youth officer and concurred with residents that they deserved one to serve villages surrounding Seronga.

In his welcome remarks, Kgosi Maedza Maedza of Seronga hailed President Khama for contributing ‘significantly’ towards the growth of tourism industry in the country.

Kgosi Maedza observed that since taking over the presidency, President Khama had played a pivotal role in ensuring that Batswana benefited from the sector.

He said residents of Seronga depended a lot on tourism activities though in the past, were spectators in the industry but through the President’s support and initiatives in place, many managed to venture into the tourism industry.

He thanked the President for his continued efforts in improving the livelihoods of the communities adding that many now live dignified lives due to programmes in place.

The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Slumber Tsogwane assured the village leader that the kgotla vehicle would be replaced this year and also that a vehicle for the social worker was budgeted for 2018/19 financial year.

In the meantime, he encouraged the social worker to seek assistance from other departments to ensure continuity in serving the communities.

For his part, the Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Thapelo Olopeng promised to send a team to see how best the ministry could serve them.

He concurred with the President that their case was unique and needed to be given special attention.

“We will look into the matter because there are some indicators on low uptake of youth programmes in Okavango.

In the report I received, there were no applications from Seronga and this could be an indication that long distance to Shakawe is a barrier,” he stated.

Mr Olopeng also promised to organise a youth seminar in Seronga to sensitise the youth about ministry programmes and processes and attend to their concerns.

He said they realised that some youths were not benefiting because of lack of information and knowledge. ENDS