28 Mar 2018

Chobe District Council chairperson, Mr Paul Chabaesele has informed councillors that Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has approved P77.8 million as the council’s revenue support grant for 2018/19 financial year.

Speaking at the beginning of a full council meeting on Monday, Mr Chabaesele said the council’s budget would be P82.7 million when taking into consideration P4.9 million from the council’s resources.

Councillor Chabaesele said while the budget reflected a four per cent increase when compared to the 2017/18 financial year budget, it represented a reduction of 11 per cent from the proposed budget.

He said the budget called on the council to re-visit its budget and align it to the new ceiling, adding that it was a reality that should motivate the council to review its efforts and develop initiatives that would increase its revenue base.

He observed that continued reluctance of communities to pay for government services impacted negatively on the council’s ability to generate its own income.

“To demonstrate the extent of the challenge our council faces, it is critical to note that the total budget expected from our sources in the 2017/18 financial year was P5 498 500, but by the end of February we had collected only P3 569 459.93,” he said.

He said while the national budget anticipated a growth rate in the global and domestic economies, there was still need to be vigilant and prudent in the use of limited resources to deliver quality services to the communities.

In the execution of the joint responsibility to strengthen the resilience of the local economy, Mr Chabaesele noted that there was need to ensure that a diverse revenue base was created and there was increased participation by the private sector in the local economy.

On other issues, he told the council meeting that primary school enrolments had increased from 3 789 last to 3 962 this year.

He said the statistics called for the expansion of  facilities such as classrooms, toilets and teachers’ houses.

He said at the district’s secondary schools the numbers increased to 1 337 this year, compared to 1 290 last year.

Even though the increase in enrolments is a good sign that the district is on the right path of improved access to education, he said there was need to work towards improving the learning environment in schools in terms of provision of stationery, construction of facilities timely, balance feeding and accelerated rate at which teachers’ welfare was addressed.

On the leasing of open spaces in Kasane and Kazungula, Mr Chabaesele said 16 open spaces were identified for allocation and were further sub-divided into smaller portions to accommodate a large number of applications leading to 100.

He explained that 21 open spaces were reserved for youth, 10 for community use, while seven were reserved for churches in Kasane.

In Kazungula, he said 30 were reserved for the youth, 13 for community use and 19 for churches.

He said there were still more spaces to be advertised because most of the applicants did not meet the eligibility criteria.

On the recent outbreak of listeriosis in South Africa, Councillor Chabaesele said the Department of Trade and Consumer Affairs in Kasane inspected retailers in the district and only one supermarket was found with the ready-to-eat meat products belonging to Enterprise food production factory,.

He said the retailer had removed the products from the shelves and had taken them back to the suppliers for refund.

He implored the councillors to assist the department to educate the consumers and the business community to avoid all the said products.

The council chairperson also told the councillors that the department had established that some businesses price their merchandise in foreign currencies, yet customers were made to pay in Pula without taking the exchange differential rate into consideration.

He explained that the practice amounted to unfair business in which the customers did not enjoy their money’s worth.

He implored the concerned entities to comply with the law by pricing their goods in Pula and thebe. ENDS