20 Jan 2019

Majority of the villages along the border fence face a similar problem of the destroyed fence and illegal transactions along the border.

Member of Parliament for Ramotswa, Mr Samuel Rantuana said when responding to questions over the dilapidated border fence in the South East District during a kgotla meeting in Ramotswa recently.

He said the border fence along the Ramotswa border had been dilapidated for some time now, and cautioned that the problem was not only in his constituency.

Mr Rantuana said normally, a border fence was managed by the involved countries basing on their relations and agreements.

He conceded that the patrol of the border fence between South Africa and Botswana was not satisfactory, which situation contributed to illegal border crossing.

Mr Rantuana said he would lobby fellow legislators to have the Botswana Defense Force back to patrolling the border fence as it used to, adding that reducing the soldier’s presence along the fence had created a gap.

He promised the residents that he would not get tired of calling for the improved manning of the border fence.

Furthermore, he informed the residents that Botswana was in consultation with South Africa to increase hours of operation between the two border gates.

He said although consultations were ongoing, the idea was to have the border gate opened at 06am and closed at 10pm to facilitate improved movement of people, goods and services between the two countries.

The Ramotswa legislator said this would call for more staff to be assigned to the border post as activities would increase.

The Ramotswa community had complained about the state of the border fence in their area, which resulted in illegal crossing and cross border crime.

Another problem that the community decried was uncollected litter, shortage of staff accommodation, especially for the police officers, drugs and substance abuse by pupils as well as inadequate parenting.

Senior chief’s representative, Kgosi Motlhanka Mokgosi called on parents to instill discipline and monitor the movement of their children.

He said it was upon parents to groom children into responsible citizens.

He further commended the area residents, saying there were few cases of indiscipline reported over the holidays. Ends