10 May 2018

Senior assistant council secretary (SACS) for Boteti Sub-district Council, Mr Onthatile Molelu has applauded the partnership between Boteti Sub-district Council and Jwaneng Town Council (JTC).

Speaking during their benchmarking visit to Jwaneng on May 8, Mr Molelu said the partnership started last year when the JTC leadership visited Boteti on a benchmarking mission that could benefit the two councils looking at their proximity to mines.

“Both councils are sitting on mining areas hence have a lot in common and can learn a lot from each other’s experiences,” he said.

He further noted that apart from comparing notes on best practices, the other objective of the partnership was to share ideas on Corporate Social Investment (CSI) projects, and how each of them interacted with the mines in their area.

Mr Molelu said since the expectation was for communities closer to mines to benefit more, they wanted to strategise on how they could improve collaboration between the political leadership and the mine for the benefit of communities.

Jwaneng deputy mayor, Ms Olga Ditsie said the partnership between the two councils should forge a way forward on programmes which would benefit their communities past the mine closure.

Ms Ditsie said the closure of BCL mine should be a wake-up call to all communities in mining areas.

“What happened in Selebi-Phikwe was a wake-up call to all mining towns because we are directly affected by the adverse effects of the mine closure,” she said.

She noted that they had already felt the pinch during the global economic recession where every sector of the economy was affected when the mines closed for a few months.

She urged the two parties to be committed on issues of economic diversification and make it a top priority for councils.

 Ms Ditsie underscored the need for them to advocate for government assistance and other stakeholders to make it successful.

She said the proximity of their councils to mines should not make them dependent on mines, but to do their level best with the little assistance they got.

“Let us facilitate programmes and projects that can benefit our communities such as land allocation,” she said. Ends