28 Feb 2019

 While generally commending the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development for the good work it was doing, some legislators have observed that there were several ways through which the ministry could be assisted to improve its effectiveness in discharging its mandate.

One of the MPs, Mr Polson Majaga of Nata-Gweta pleaded for an increase in the ministry’s budget allocation to enable it to properly carry out its many responsibilities.

Debating the ministry’s proposed allocation for the coming financial year on Wednesday, Mr Majaga further called on all stakeholders to assist local authorities to come up with better strategies that could help them raise the much-needed revenue.

He said presently, councils were experiencing challenges in collecting revenue from various sources, hence they needed to be assisted to overcome the challenge of poor revenue collection.

The MP said it was imperative to ensure that councils collected all the monies due to them as the funds were necessary for the financing of other developments.

On the Ipelegeng programme, MP Majaga observed that the initiative needed a review with the view to ascertaining whether or not projects implemented through it had value for money.

He said it was critical that the funding allocated for the programme was used for the implementation of sustainable projects that could benefit citizens in the long term.

Mr Majaga also appealed for the setting up of Nata Sub-district Council, saying people in the constituency still travelled long distances to seek some services as the service centre in Nata was simply a white elephant.

MP for Okavango, Mr Bagalatia Arone expressed gratitude that offices for the Department of Tribal Administration would be built in Kauxwi and Tobera in his constituency.

He however implored the ministry to also build staff houses and not repeat what had happened in Samuchima, where only offices were built with no provision for staff housing.

Further, Mr Arone urged the ministry to consider using the bulk of its budget to assist areas with more serious challenges such as Okavango, Ghanzi and Kgalagadi.

Dr Alfred Madigele, MP for Mmathethe/Molapowabojang thanked government for the constituency fund, saying many villages had, through the fund, managed to get some key developments. 

He also called on government to consider increasing the fund to at least P15 million so that constituencies could do even more.

On another issue, the lawmaker appealed to the ministry to review its establishment of sub-districts.

Giving an example, he said the fact that Kanye Administration Authority (KAA) offices were in Kanye, where the main Southern District Council offices were also located meant that people meant to be serviced through KAA still had to travel long distances to get services.

On yet another issue, Dr Madigele opined that time had come for headmen of arbitration to be included in the pay structure of the rest of the public service.

He said with the current arrangement, where the headmen of arbitration received allowances and not salaries, they could not access loan facilities.

MP Gilbert Mangole of Mochudi West shared the sentiments on the payment of headmen of arbitration, saying they too wanted to be able to approach banks for loans so that they could better their lives. 

He further agreed that the constituency fund was indeed low and needed to be raised so that it could become even more effective.

On electricity reticulation in RADP settlements, MP Mangole advised the ministry to take the initiative through affirmative action to connect electricity to the homesteads of residents as they were mostly poor and could not afford to pay for the service.

Adding his voice to the debate, Tonota legislator Mr Thapelo Olopeng said the ministry was doing well, particularly in the implementation of projects.

He said the bulk of government projects at district level were being implemented by or through the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, adding that in order to enable it to do even better, government should consider increasing the ministry’s staff.

Another way of improving service delivery in the ministry, he said, would be through enhancing the ministry’s ICT connectivity with the view to doing away with the need to use manual systems to perform some functions, something that he observed often resulted in delays that could otherwise had been avoided. ENDS