26 Feb 2019

Chobe District council chairperson, Mr Paul Chabaesele, has urged stakeholders to continue disseminating voter registration information. 

Speaking at the opening of a full council meeting on February 25, Councillor Chabaesele said since the supplementary voter registration started in December last year, 196 people registered at both the IEC office in Kasane and other villages.

He said the number showed that there was low turnout for people registering for elections and called for all to be partners in the electoral process. 

Councillor Chabaesele said participation in the electoral process was the only way to cement the country’s position as the standard bearer of guarantors of democracy. 

He said he was aware of IEC’s efforts to ensure that people were taught on their responsibility as well as their registration drive to ensure that no one was left behind. 

On other issues, Councillor Chabaesele said the council needed to be vigilant and prudent in the use of limited resources at its disposal. 

“In execution of our joint responsibility to strengthen the resilience of our local economy, we need to ensure that we create a diverse revenue base, create sustainable employment opportunities and build enabling infrastructure,” he said. 

He said roads played a crucial contribution to economic development. 

He said the Kazungula Bridge and the Mosetse-Kazungula Railway project were expected to unlock economic sectors, deliver higher GDP value and create much needed employment for Batswana especially the youth. 

Still on road developments, Councillor Chabaesele said the council had been forced to part ways with the contractor of the Kazungula road surfacing for failing to complete the project on time. 

He said that the council was going through a tendering process to complete the remaining works and explained that four companies were selected to buy pavers from small contractors within the district. 

Mr Chabaesele said the works were envisaged to begin on March 21 up to April 26. 

Regarding the new Kazungula Primary School, the council chairperson said the long awaited construction project would soon commence and consultants for the construction arrived in the district on February 15. 

He said he was glad that action was being taken on some of the government infrastructure that was not in good condition citing that at Liswaani Junior secondary school the repairs to the ceilings, light fixtures have commenced whilst doors and window panes at the hostels have been fitted. 

He said at Chobe Junior Secondary School the water reticulation instalments were nearing completion, in addition to the kitchen and ablutions maintenance. 

He urged stakeholders to work together to ensure that all government infrastructure was taken care of and attended to timeously before they could reach the stage of repair. 

On job creation and local economic development, Councillor Chabaesele said there were nine cooperatives registered in the district, with four operational, three under revival and two still at starting up phase. With the continuing outreach activities to create awareness on the cooperative business model, Mr Chabaesele said there would be more registration of cooperatives. 

“The hope is to advocate for employment creating cooperatives as opposed to the traditional service oriented cooperatives and as this currently stand there are only two cooperatives registered for that purpose,” he said. 

He said one cooperative in Kasane has created employment for 10 member-employees whilst another one in Parakarungu was earmarked to absorb 19 people. 

“Whilst only 10 jobs have been created, 241 members continue to actively benefit in various ways from their cooperatives which include financial inclusion for members of the Savings and Credit Cooperative and shared rental space for members of the marketing cooperative,” he explained. ends