19 Jul 2018

Delay in the implementation of projects has slowed down development in the Okavango area, particularly in villages such as Nxaunxau, Okavango MP Bagalatia Arone said in a kgotla meeting recently. 

Mr Arone attributed the delays to incompetence and laziness on the part of some government and parastatal employees. 

Nxaunxau residents had appealed  to their MP to help them address the reluctance  to attend to their concerns by organisations such as Water Utilities Corporation, land board, roads department, gender affairs office and youth office, among others. 

MP Arone, who is also Minister of Basic Education, called upon the mentioned entities to up their game and serve their communities diligently. 

He said extension officers in Okavango should bear in mind that the community they served was where extraordinary decisions needed to be taken. 

“Waivers and special dispensation should apply in some special cases, for example, an old lady earning a living solely through bakery business should not be told to close down because some new regulation says there should be a shower and a water system toilet at the premises. People should find easy ways of not closing down,” he said.

Mr Arone said tendering processes also contributed to delays saying “as service providers, people should find ways of speeding up process. Sometimes you find unnecessary delays in procurement of stuff at schools because of the tendering process though government availed the funds.”

He said development in the area was hindered by the fact that though big, the Okavango sub-district was administered from Maun. 

He suggested that it be elevated to full district status.

 On a different matter, the MP said jobs not requiring specialised skills should be done by locals in a bid to address shortage of accommodation. 

He also mentioned that Bambukushu and Basarwa  were vulnerable to human trafficking in the past and therefore advised parents to follow proper procedure when giving away their children as maids and herdboys. 

Explaining the procedure, he said specific forms needed to be filled while the village leadership should be involved as well as the full names andother details of the potential employer. 

Meanwhile, Nxaunxau VDC chairperson Ms Mbambo Makena complained about the water reservoir which had been leaking badly for years but was never attended to and had now turned into a watering point for livestock. 

She also decried the delay in commencement of the P10 million constituency project in the village entailing construction of two LA2 houses for VDC staff. 

Another burning issue was the bad state of the village’s gravel road said to be frustrating users especially during the rainy season. 

Ms Makena also appealed to the MP to help people of Nxaunxau get Poverty Eradication Programmes assistance noting that only 34 had been assessed since 2015 while 99 were awaiting assessment. ENDS