28 Nov 2018

 The Chairperson of the North East District Council Ms Florah Mpetsane says Tati West and Tati East constituencies have experienced a low turnout of registration for the 2019 general elections.

Delivering a speech onNovember 26 at the ongoing full council session in Masunga councilor Mpetsane said of the two constituencies that make up the District, a total of 24,238 people had registered to vote 11,899 from Tati East and 12,399 from Tati West.

She said in 2009 and 2014 a total of 21,470 and 24,460 registered to vote respectively, adding that the low turnout showed that eligible voters had not registered.

She said the district IEC office had reported that low registration turnout was a result of reduction of polling stations as pointed out by voters.

She further noted that the available polling stations were not easily accessible adding that there was a low interest to register by young people.

Meanwhile Ms Mpetsane said  that the district continued to experience water crisis with some villages receiving low pressure which resulted in a rationing schedule to meet water demand for Senyawe, Jackalas 1, Tshesebe and Themashanga.

She said Ntimbale Dam and associated treatment works was designed to supply to address water demand for both North East District (NED) and Tutume Sub-District however noted that inadequacy in initial design resulted in only half the production being available for supply to North East District and compelled Maitengwe well fields to be a permanent source for Tutume Sub-District.

The chairperson stated that preparations to commence the construction of NED–Tutume Sub District Water Supply Scheme were progressing well.

She said the project was meant to upgrade the Ntimbale Dam water supply infrastructure to meet water demand for NED as well as Tutume Sub District villages adding that the design tender documentation was being reviewed and the construction phase was scheduled to commence in April 2019.

She highlighted that the district faced land servicing challenges because of the demand for plots and high cost of land servicing saying that due to this high demand of land and high cost of land servicing, the Ministry of Land management, Water and Sanitation Services (MLWS) was  experiencing a huge backlog of unserviced plots across the district.

However she said MLWS availed funding for minimal land servicing at Masunga, Matshelagabedi, Matsiloje, Shashe Bridge, and Tati Siding villages during 2016/17 financial year adding that more projects would be considered in future depending on funds availability.

Councilor Mpetsane indicated that the Ipelegeng Programme was awarded funds amounting to P16 million to implement 104 projects with a plan to employ 1763 beneficiaries in the 2018/19 financial year.

She said the programme was then allocated additional funding amounting to P4million and further employed an additional quota of 263 beneficiaries which was meant to cater for 27 additional technical projects and other associated costs.

The chairperson said since inception of the programme until end of October 2018, the programme had engaged 12,867 beneficiaries while 450 were engaged under the sustenance initiative.

Councilor Mpetsane emphasized that the battle against gender based violence (GBV) was far from being defeated given the tragic GBV cases that women and children continued to face not only in the North East District but country wide.

Nevertheless, she urged people never to retreat and lose hope until a mindset change towards women and children was achieved.

She further stated that the 16 days of activism against gender based violence commemoration 2018 had been launched under the theme “Orange the World #hear me too: end violence against women and children” having commenced on November 25 to December 10 2018.

She said NED’s goal for 2018 was to target areas in which gender based violence was perpetuated and push for systemic change and accountability.

Ms Mpetsane said the district had done well in the past years with commemoration of these days through sensitization forums, seminars and various outreaches therefore she implored community leaders to join hands for robust interventions in an endeavor to curtail gender based violence in the district. ENDS