21 May 2019

Mabutsane Sub-district Council has been encouraged to live government objectives that include employment creation, good governance, apolitical in service delivery and ease of doing business among others.

Officially opening the sub-council forum recently, the sub council chairperson, Mr Stammere Ramosesane urged service providers to make a commitment that services provided were in the best interest of the people they served.

“I must reiterate that President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi has clearly commissioned and challenged us as councils to go the extra mile and forge working relations with all those we share ambition for the betterment of our communities,” he said.

Mr Ramosesane said it was in that light that they were committed to implementing development projects and programmes through Public Private Partnerships, and that the newly elected village development committees were capacitated so that they could lobby for grassroots development.

He decried VDC rental arrears, saying they were still high as they currently stood at about P260 000. He added that although it indicated a decline of about P2 800 from the previous report, more still needed to be done.

“Management established a task team in March to come up with strategies for arrear collection and to curb increasing rental arrears.

I am still appealing to you honourable councillors to encourage the new VDCs to break the chain of non-payment for VDC rentals,” he said.

On the issue of water supply in the region, Mr Ramosesane said it was a challenge as production did not meet demand.

He said Sekoma, Khonkhwa, Keng, Khakhea, Itholoke and Mahotshwane were hard hit. He said Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) was, however, planning to connect Sekoma-Khakhea to the Phuduhudu wellfields, and that the corporation had engaged one company for borehole drilling at Mahotshwane at a cost of close to P3 million.

He said the Kanaku water reticulation project was expected to have started at the beginning of this month, but that due to unavailability of required machinery, the commencement was delayed.

Mr Ramosesane also informed councillors that the newly introduced menu at primary schools where pupils were provided with breakfast started accordingly in all schools in the sub district except for four due to various challenges.

He, however, said the implementation of the initiative was not without challenges, as they had limited suppliers of commodities such as eggs and fruits in the area as well as shortage of pots at schools to cater for breakfast and tea break.

He said the council had taken a decision to liaise with the Department of Animal Production to assist layers production farmers whose projects collapsed to consider re-stocking and to take advantage of the initiative.

Mr Ramosesane also implored councillors to encourage business people to work hard and take advantage of the initiative. ENDS