10 Jun 2018

The upgrading of the Gasita health post to include a maternity wing will commence next month and is expected to be completed in eight months.

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Gasita on Friday, Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Alfred Madigele said the project would be funded by the Hindu Foundation of Botswana to the tune of P1 million.

Dr Madigele, who is also the Member of Parliament for Mmathethe-Molapowabojang said the project would engage local contractors; hence heeding the government’s call for local empowerment. Additionally, he said he would facilitate the provision of construction tools to local builders as a way of supporting their craft.

However, he noted that government’s efforts to provide developments could never be enough, hence there were bound to be shortcomings especially on issues of procedure.

“Let us acknowledge that even though government is making an effort in developing our villages and improving the lives of the people, there are also procedures to be followed hence we will not get some services as and when we want them,” he said. However, he noted that government’s efforts to provide developments could never be enough, hence there were bound to be shortcomings especially on issues of procedure.

“Let us acknowledge that even though government is making an effort in developing our villages and improving the lives of the people, there are also procedures to be followed hence we will not get some services as and when we want them,” he said.

Apart from the high rate of non-communicable diseases, he said maternal health was one of the services that required attention.

“Statistics show that our area is one of those highly affected by mother to child transmission of HIV and this is due to shortage of health services,” he said.

Director of procurement and project management, Mr Gilbert Matome explained that due to dynamics of health issues, they had also moved to change their building plans to accommodate such changes. He said such variations had informed the upgrading of the Gasita health post to a clinic with a maternity wing to bring maternal health services closer to the people.

He urged locals who would be engaged in the project to work hard and complete it on time so that they could be exemplary to their counter parts who would have similar projects in the future.

He also urged residents to guard against theft of building materials so that the project could be completed on time and within budget.

Kanye Administrative Authority Sub-council chairperson, Mr Tlhomamo Dibeela said the sponsorship of the clinic upgrade by the Hindu Foundation of Botswana was a welcome development because as a council they could not meet the high demand of projects due to budgetary constraints. Ends