04 Mar 2018

North West District council secretary, Mr Charles Amos has appealed to residents who are supposed to be relocated to Xorotsha settlement to be patient while they finalise some of the logistics pertaining to the establishment of their village.

He said in an interview that government was in position to relocate them so that they could be able to access services nearer them.

This followed efforts by government to establish a new settlement and relocate its inhabitants who are from the nearest ranches surrounding Kareng and Ghanzi.

The settlement was conceived as a Presidential decision to accommodate about 300 people so that they access basic services.

The settlement would be a Rural Area Dwellers (RADs) category and government made a deliberate effort to assist people in remote areas to improve their living conditions by availing opportunities and resources.

However, Mr Amos revealed that they were committed to designating the settlement, adding that recently they visited the area and noted that drilling of a borehole had been completed and awaiting inserting of screen casing pipes, which were designed to sieve water and ensure residents accessed clean portable water.

Second stage, he said would be to make an agreement with the engaged contractor to do the pump testing to measure yields and quality of water to check if it was portable for human consumption.

Mr Amos stated that the next stage was to arrange distribution of water to the base of the village, adding that after completion of water reticulation plan, another activity would be to do the quantifying expenses of street de-bushing, road forming and construction of kraals at the site to pave way for relocation.

“After we finalise the costing, that is when the time frame for relocation could be determined. If the funds permits, we will do the exercise and our estimation ranged around P16 million without basic services such as school, health facility and kgotla office,” he added.

Mr Amos further indicated that the exercise needed concerted efforts of the four local authorities, adding that it was pleasing that the office of the district commissioner had partnered with the district council to spearhead the project.

He said as a district, they appreciated great support from Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and area MP who is also assistant minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Thato Kwerepe.

He said through their support, they were hopeful that the project would be successful.

Meanwhile, it was reported that during a kgotla meeting in 2009, the President directed that the settlement be gazetted and people be relocated, but action had dragged for years. ENDS