14 Apr 2019

Communities in the vicinity of Debswana Jwaneng Mine have been advised to be well versed in human rights issues so they could be in a position to advise if they felt their rights were violated.

The advice was given by the mine’s corporate affairs manager Ms Montlenyane Baaitse handing over a donation of office equipment including computers, laptops and printers to dikgosi from Jwaneng and neighbouring villages such as Maboane, Maokane and Moshupa.

Ms Baaitse said given the importance of the issue, the mine had found it fit to equip and train them on human rights with the expectation that information would be cascaded to communities.

“We trained them on basic human rights in 2016, then in 2017 we gave them a more advanced training of trainers course, but then we realised that they were struggling with compiling and keeping records, hence the decision to give them office equipment,” she said.

Ms Baaitse said efforts to engage communities on human rights awareness would also help maintain the prevailing cordial relations between them and the mine.

For their part, the three dikgosi in attendance, being Kgosi Kaisara Phuthego of Maboane, Kgosi Isaac Banyaditswe of Maokane and Kgosi Nkaelang Lekgoa of Jwaneng expressed appreciation for the mine’s efforts, saying the office equipment was the missing necessity in their offices and would give them dignity.

They said in this modern era, it was an anomaly that they had to prepare official documents manually.

They also requested more frequent engagement so that the computers did not lie idle.

The four dikgosi, including the absent Kgosi Oscar Mosielele of Moshupa, have been trained on Voluntary Principles of Security and Human Rights. ENDS