17 Jun 2019

Ghanzi South constituency has recorded an increase in voter registration, Charleshill Sub-district Council chairperson, Mr Alec Motlhophele has said.

Mr Motlhophele stated that after the three cycle voter registration, 13 941 people had registered to vote in the constituency exceeding the 2014 general election registration statistics that stood at 10 687.

He said this implied that 3 254 more voters registered for the 2019 general elections.

“There are allegations of voter trafficking and the Independent Electoral Commission has received 39 objections in the first voters roll inspection,” he stated.

These objections, he said, were already registered with the magistrate court and “you shall be updated on the matter once the judgements are out.”

Mr Motlhophele said  IEC was continuing with civic and voter education and it would soon start recruitment of poll staff.

He said the priority would be given to those who had  registered, as recommended by Ghanzi South Party Liaison Committee.

On a separate issue, Mr Motlhophele told the sub-council meeting that  an invitation to tender for 56 small agricultural holdings plots located at Nxogorimo area was ongoing.

He said the documents were sold at P160 for youth and P310 for others.

 The tender was opened for the public on May 24 and would be closed on June 28 at 9am. 

“Let us urge all our communities, especially young women to bid for this tender as this is a step towards owning an economic productive land that could change their socio economic status if developed accordingly,” he stated.

Concerning, Charleshill land layout, he said the sub-district, through the physical planning office, had prepared detailed layouts for New Xanagas  and Charleshill Phase II.

He noted that the Charleshill phase II detailed layout produced 1 900 residential plots and 61 plots were for other uses while new Xanagas  layout  had 326 residential plots and 26 for non-residential uses. The chairperson explained that the layouts intended to promote rational and optimal use of land and most importantly they would increase community’s access to land for different use.

This, he said, would ultimately reduce waiting lists for residential plots in these villages.

Furthermore, the chairperson stated that Botswana Animal Identification and Traceability System (BAITS) was temporarily disrupted during the months of April and May since the system was upgraded from BAITS 1 to BAITS 2.

He said some services such as brand registration of holdings were not available during that period. Currently, he said BAITS 2.0 was running but accessible to veterinary staff only, who were assisting farmers to carry out majority of activities in the system including but not limited to registration of animals, transfer of cattle and issuing of movement permits.

“Let me assure you that, BAITS 2.0 online services will be accessible to farmers from June 12, 2019,”he stated. ends