14 Feb 2019

Ramaphatlhe is a village faced with challenges, according Kgosi Elijah Dibe in an interview.

Kgosi Dibe cited water shortage as the major problem. 

He said the village had only three stand pipes serving the entire village, leading to shortage of water.

He said some residents were forced to draw water from the local stream, the situation he said was not healthy.

Kgosi Dibe said they had also resolved to give priority to illegal squatters who had their shelters demolished recently, saying they will be the first to be considered in government assistance programmes so that they could be able to put roof over their heads.

Moreover, he said the demolition of the shelters had traumatised some youth in the village such that some of them had become rude and in need of counselling.

Kgosi Dibe attributed lack of counselling drop outs at junior schools as the children could not stand being called names such as ‘yellow monster’.

He said some parents did not want their Form One children to be admitted either in Thamaga or Mmankgodi, but preferred Kumakwane as they said their children were bullied at those schools.

“I also had to discipline parents who allowed their children to bunk school and I introduced corporal punishment for men who dated school going children,” he said.

Further, he said for the village to be developed they needed to start with prioritising education, hence children were taught sexual education.

However, all is not lost in the village as the crime rate is low and Kgosi Dibe said if a satellite police station was to be opened, the situation would further improve.

Kgosi Dibe also welcomed the soon to be opened SOS offices, the project he said would facilitate the strengthening of families in Ramaphatle, Gakgatla and Gamodubu.

Family strengthening project aims to empower parents and equip them with the tools to raise their children in a nurturing and secure home.

The chairperson of the Village Development Committee (VDC) Ms Kesegofetse Mogotsi said they were doing well in the sense that they had finished building a dam and soon they would be constructing an office and storeroom as it was part of their bigger plan of moulding bricks.

She said the aim was to have their bricks approved by Botswana Bureau of Standards.

She added that they were fencing the dam so that they could draw water from it.

“We are expecting to employ 20 people on this project and the machine that will be used to produce bricks will arrive soon,” she said.

However, they are faced with shortage of sand due to the illegal sand mining that has marred the Metsimotlhaba River.

It is on that note that they are planning to approach the relevant authorities for a sand mining license.

On another issue, Ms Mogotsi said although no one had benefited from gender affairs nor Youth Development Fund, some community members had benefited from LIMID and Poverty Eradication Programme.

They have been hosting an elderly lunch for the past three years in which they give senior citizens walking sticks, shawls, dukes and hats.

Ms Mogotsi said the 2018 lunch had some improvements in the sense that they had brought medical personnel to test for different health conditions.

The community development officer for the area Mr David Raisake said Poverty Eradication Programme was faced with some challenges as some people were trained and not funded while some registered, but they were never assessed.

Mr Raisake said in Mmankgodi, they had more than 300 people who registered, but were not assessed. He said Mogoditshane/Thamaga Sub-district was lagging behind in poverty eradication efforts compared to Letlhakeng.

“Goats are sourced from as far as Kgalagadi, they are not vaccinated and these people are not taught how to take care of them,” he said. ENDs