04 Dec 2018

The mayor of Gaborone, Mr Kagiso Thutwe says the reforms that government has initiated in terms of ease-of-doing business are bearing positive results.

Addressing Gaborone City Council full meeting, Mr Thutlwe said the council has been recording an increasing number of business applications received and approved in manufacturing, trade and liquor, adding that the council would continue to monitor the implementation of the initiatives through relevant committees.

He noted that this year’s budget whose theme was: Employment creation through provision and maintenance of public infrastructure, has created 37 906 employment opportunities since the beginning of the financial year through council’s works.

The mayor said council through its 2018-2023 strategy plan resolved to strengthen relations and collaborations by embarking on a bench marking visit to Windhoek in August aimed at creating new relations..

“The visit was successful as the relations renewals memorandum was signed on August 7 2018 where areas of cooperation form part of the memorandum: local governance structure management, economic development and entrepreneurship, tourism and culture, community development, infrastructure maintenance, waste management and clean city, public safety and law enforcement,” he said

With regard to education, Mr Thutwe said total enrollment of all the 29 primary schools in Gaborone stood at 23 709.

He said they have observed that the numbers were increasing every term due to increase in number of foreign students and learners and relocation from private schools, adding that it has resulted in over subscription in some of the schools which has led to some of the classes being conducted outside.

This, he said, was compounded by the fact that some of the schools did not have the requisite classrooms as provided in the Revised National Policy on Education.

Cllr Thutlwe said while resources were still inadequate to provide facilities in all schools, they needed to ensure that pupils were distributed equitably among schools so that there was a balance in enrollment and appealed to school heads and parents to find solutions in terms of admitting pupils.

As for reception classes, the mayor said that they could not be extended to all schools due to shortage of resources, citing that only 14 out of 29 schools had reception classes.

“We, therefore, would like to reassure parents that it is in the interest of the council to provide basic education and we will continue to tirelessly work to find ways to provide these services,” he said.

He said that GCC had started to record declining number of fire incidents and associated losses of property and lives, and attributed the decline to fire safety awareness which was being continuously conducted in and around Gaborone. Ends