22 Aug 2019

 Tsabong Sub-district Council deputy chairperson Mr Lucky Lorekang has commended the council for achieving a lot despite the challenges.

Speaking during the council wrap up session on August 20, he said Tsabong Sub-district Council had experienced a budget deficit of P10.8 million during financial year 2015/2016, which impacted negatively on the general fund.

To deal with the challenge, he said the council ensured that tight financial control measures were put in place, which resulted in the sub-council attaining a surplus budget of P1.2 million for the year 2016/2017,, P4.2 million in the year 2017/2018 and P4 million in 2018/2019.

This he said left the sub-council in a stable financial state with the general fund balance of P530 470. Mr Lorekang asserted that the incoming council should exercise prudent financial management to avoid budget deficit, which he said impacted on effective service delivery.

On education, he noted that the council fought hard to improve the poor education results in the Kgalagadi South region.

The region had dropped from a pass rate of 57.5 per cent in 2015 to 26 per cent in 2016, but in 2018 it achieved 61 per cent.

The results did not meet the set target of 70 per cent, thus it was critical to continue to strive to attain the target.

The junior secondary schools had recorded a slight improvement from 22 per cent in 2016 to 24.45 per cent in 2018, while senior secondary schools had slightly improved from 10.2 per cent in 2015 to 17.36 per cent in 2018.

The deputy council chairperson implored those who would be taking over to work hard to address the poor education results, adding that education was the yardstick of sustainable development.

He said Botswana was embarking on a transformative agenda of embracing a knowledge based economy, thus it was imperative to focus on improving education results. He said during their term in office, government improved the primary school feeding programme by adding the breakfast component, which included fruits, vegetables and eggs.

He said for this to effectively work and empower local communities, the council had encouraged layer farming, especially in the BORAVAST area, which was lagging behind.

He said pupils in the sub district needed 80 000 eggs per month.

He divulged that future plans were underway to introduce fresh meat as part of building the education system and empowering the people.

He noted that relevant stakeholders should get ready to devise strategies for the roll out to ensure efficient delivery.

Further, he said Early Childhood Education was rolled out to all 25 primary schools in the region to offer reception classes despite resource constraints.

He said that the Economic Planning Division converted old kitchens into classrooms under the Ipelegeng Programme to create teaching space at schools that did not have enough classrooms.

On youth empowerment, he said since 2014, 87 young people were funded through the Youth Development Fund with a total of P9 345 013.

He said 83 projects were operational while four had collapsed.

He said the application window for the funds was now open.

He said the challenge was that some of the young people failed to service their loans and must be encouraged to honour the agreement.

He stated that the council had made strides on infrastructure development, where a total of 168 destitute houses were constructed and 29 built under RADP.

The Economic Stimulus Programme introduced in 2016 made it possible to complete all projects for phase I, II and III, which were completed within budget and specification such as the Struizendam Customary Court, Bokspits, Nhake and Khawa primary schools.ENDS