25 Apr 2018

Member of Parliament for Takatokwane constituency, Mr Ngaka Ngaka has encouraged Motokwe youth who did not do well in their BGCSE to enrol at Botswana Open University in order to improve their results.

Speaking at a kgotla meeting on Tuesday, Mr Ngaka said doing so would help them qualify for many programmes at different universities. He added that the good thing about Botswana Open University, formerly known as BOCODOL, was that it did not charge registration fees and was very affordable.

He said the decision to make BOCODOL a university was a move by government to ensure that students who did not do well during their BGCSE were not left in the lurch, but assisted to improve their academic performance.

Mr Ngaka, who is also Minister of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology, assured residents that despite having more workload after being appointed a cabinet minister, he was not lost to the constituency as he would ensure that he was always available like it had been the case.

Still at the kgotla meeting, Mr Ngaka informed residents about the newly passed bills at Parliament such as the Cyber Crime and Computer Related Crimes Bill, Companies Registration Bill as well as the Registration of Business Names Bill. “I will therefore like to caution especially the youth to start being careful of what they post on social media as it will likely land them in prison because our courts of laws would now start accepting electronic evidence once the bill is signed into law,” he said.

On other issues, Mr Ngaka informed residents of Motokwe that the farms that were demarcated in their area and were due to be advertised have been put on hold as government felt they were not demarcated properly. He explained that the demarcation did not leave an allowance for future development of roads infrastructure as per requirement.

He said the completion of the new demarcations was expected at the end of June this year, adding that he had passed the request by residents to reserve farms for the youth of Motokwe, Khekhenye and Tshwaane to the relevant minister although he was still awaiting response.

Mr Ngaka was responding after Kgosi Aobakwe Molaole requested him to advocate that the youth of the three villages in the vicinity of the envisaged farms be reserved a quota of the farms.

He reasoned that the youth in the areas were hampered from utilising government programmes such as the Youth Development Fund as well as CEDA Young Farmers Fund because there was shortage of land in their area. Meanwhile Mr Ngaka pleaded with residents of Motokwe to have the spirit of compassion as demonstrated by former president, Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama. He urged them to always give to other needy members of society rather than just wait to be given.

Mr Ngaka said this after indicating that his kgotla meeting was partly to deliver the donations of blankest from the former president as requested by the retired Kgosi Olebogeng Puleng during the former’s farewell ceremony.

He also used the meeting to appraise residents on the roles of his ministry. BOPA