08 Aug 2018

Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Dr Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi has refuted as false allegations that the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) is a waste of public funds.

Officially opening Shashe Mooke Customary Court offices built at a cost of over P1 million under ESP on Tuesday, Dr Venson-Moitoi said ESP was meant to boost economic growth through increased government spending in identified sectors, diversification of the economy and employment creation acceleration for Batswana. She said the decision to introduce the ESP was necessitated by the fact that Botswana, like other countries was affected by the 2008 economic meltdown.

She said this had negatively affected the development budget, where some of the projects were either shelved or deferred.

The minister said in order to address the challenge, government put into place both austerity measures and mitigation interventions to cushion the effects of the continued global market unpredictability.

“It is in this regard that government introduced ESP to expand the economy through accelerated economic diversification while creating employment opportunities in the country,” she said.

The programme strives to eradicate backlog of government projects that were affected by the economic recession, she said, adding that projects that were deferred during the recession were brought forward and added to projects that would be undertaken this financial year.

Dr Venson-Moitoi further said ESP was designed to target the construction industry.
In addition, the minister further explained that there was also a provision of over P1 million for the procurement of furniture and a vehicle for the kgotla.

She explained that the project was mainly identified to address the challenge of lack of office space for Shashe Mooke Tribal Administration staff because the staff was housed by the Village Development Committee in three separate rooms.

Dr Venson-Moitoi stated that the provision of enough office space and the necessary resources would contribute positively to service delivery by the staff.
She explained that the Department of Tribal Administration, which comprises Dikgosi, was important in nurturing democracy.

Dr Venson Moitoi condemned a previous incident in which some of the offices were vandalised and copper cables stolen, saying perpetrators must be brought to book.
Meanwhile, Kgosi Botshogile Adam of Shashe Mooke thanked the government for building the offices, saying they would ease congestion at the main kgotla.

The director of Tribal Administration, Ms Masego Mooketsi applauded Tonota Sub-district for being the first district across the country to have finished its ESP 1 projects on time and on budget, attributing that to good and sound leadership.

She promised that her department would provide a cyclic maintenance of the offices.

Giving a vote of thanks, the area MP and Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sports and Culture Development, Mr Thapelo Olopeng said where government was unable to provide development due to financial constraints, the district leadership always engage private sponsorship, citing an example of the new Tonota kgotla shelter.
Mr Olopeng explained that a decision had already been taken to improve the dignity of dikgosi by building them ten kgotla offices in Tonota under the P10 million constituency Fund.
He thanked various departments in his constituency to be working together to provide services to the people, a move hesaid was in line with President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s administration of ‘one government approach system’. Ends