15 Mar 2018

Nominated councillor in the Molepolole South constituency, Mr Motlhophi Leo, says it is high time councils become autonomous.

Debating Kweneng District Council chairperson’s speech on Tuesday at the ongoing full council sitting, Mr Leo said it took long for the council to implement resolutions citing Molepolole development review.

He said the reason why developments and projects lagged behind was because councils were not independent and as such called for decentralisation of governing systems. “It is high time we changed our system,” he charged.
Cllr Leo complained that KDC was not visible and suggested regular press briefings after full council meetings on progress made by the council as a way to improve the image of the council.

He also submitted that once in a while, there should be live coverage of the councils’ full meeting in various media platforms so that the public could also be a part of the proceedings.

Mogoditshane Central North councillor Mr Johnson Rowland said the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development should consider formulating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy for the private sector.  “CSR has worked for other countries particularly neighbouring South Africa,”  he added.

Mr Rowland explained that through CSR companies could contribute a lot in developmental projects because it had been proven that government alone could not do everything. Sporting codes he said such as swimming could be introduced in public schools through CSR.

He has however urged government to invest heavily in basic education which is the backbone of the economy of the country.  He said though government had come up with initiatives such as donkey carts to transport school going children in rural areas and in ploughing lands to and from school, the method had proven that it was not reliable hence he suggested erection of porta cabins as classrooms in those areas so that the children could attend classes without failure.  

He further said the current situation where children travelled long distances was npt good since they ended up quitting school along the way because of fatigue.

For his part, Takatokwane-Dutlwe councillor Mr Thomas Batlhophi said monitoring of projects was insufficient in most areas citing shortage of resources such as vehicles and manpower.  

Projects such as construction of roads he said were likely to suffer if there was insufficient monitoring and called on the House to find ways on how best to address such issues. Ends