27 Jun 2018

Chobe District has registered high numbers of reported cases of child abuse in the current quarter.

Chobe District Council chairperson, Councillor Paul Chabaesele revealed this at the on-going full council meeting on June 26.

Mr Chabaesele told the meeting that the district registered 11 cases varying from child neglect, maintenance, juvenile delinquency, incest to rape.

He explained that most of the cases were attributed to parents who allegedly neglected their parental responsibilities, something he said was a serious concern to the district and needed holistic approach.

He indicated that three parents were sent to prison for child negligence while a number of defilement cases were also awaiting ruling by the magistrate court.

“The situation has a negative impact on the family unit and I therefore wish to sincerely urge all adults to continue joining efforts to fight all forms of abuse that impact negatively on our children’s growth and development,” he said.

On issues of education in the district, Mr Chabaesele said the 10 primary schools in the district have enrolled 3 789 pupils while the two junior secondary schools have enrolled 1 343 students.

He said three boys and one girl abandoned school while one girl at Chobe Junior Secondary School dropped out due to pregnancy.

“This challenge of dropouts calls on stakeholders to come up with interventions to address the problem,” he said.

On school performance, Mr Chabaesele said analysis of term one results showed that primary schools continued to do well because eight out of 10 primary schools in the region achieved the set national target of 80 per cent.

He, however, said secondary schools in the region continued to experience devaluation in academic performance after both failed to reach the 40 per cent target.

“Liswaani I recorded some improvement as it moved from 25.3 per cent to 33.6 per cent, which is encouraging, but Chobe JSS dropped from 34.36 per cent to 28.8 per cent,” he said.

That, he said was worrisome and hence the need for strategies that would improve the academic performance outlook in the region.

“I encourage the regional office to engage schools and parents with a view to identifying a winning formula for excellent academic performance and it must further ensure that syllabus is covered, use differentiated teaching methods to cater for all learners and to intensify supervision and monitoring of teaching and learning processes by accounting for results on termly basis,” he said.

On the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Mr Chabaesele said construction of road network and drainage systems for eastern area of Pandamatenga farms, which commenced in August 2016 is expected to complete in August this year.

He said the overall progress of the project was 72 per cent and on schedule.

Further, Mr Chabaesele told the meeting that by the end of May, the council was owed P158 736.31 service levy arrears by 543 beneficiaries and out of which only P3 200 had been paid.

As such, he indicated that bulk short messages had been sent to 34 defaulters as reminders and the council was working on updating records for the remaining defaulters to send reminders.

On sport development, he said the district had been selected with other 10 districts to be funded for the construction of a mini stadium during the financial year to the tune of P5 million.

He said consultations had been held with the district leadership to determine suitable location for the stadium and the district was awaiting instruction on the works to be done from the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development.

He said Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) was owed over P8 million in Kasane and defaulters were not coming forth to pay.

Thus, he pleaded with councillors to encourage their constituents to pay their WUC debts through minimal monthly payments so as to manage their accounts.

He further said expansion of networks at Parakarungu, Kavimba, Mabele and Pandamatenga were partially completed. ENDS