25 Jun 2020

Batswana have been advised to learn to live with COVID-19.

  Speaking in Moshupa yesterday, vice president Mr Slumber Tsogwane therefore called on district leadership to intensify education to ensure that people understood the need to embrace the new normal to prevent further spread of the virus.

 Mr Tsogwane, who was addressing the village’s COVID-19 team and local leadership,  underscored the need to open the economy in phases to allow for assessment of the situation as well as formulation of strategies to employ.

  He said after observing the COVID-19 pattern in the country, the economy would be resuscitated while at the same time ensuring adherence to the set health protocols.

The vice president said even though borders were not yet open, transportation of essential services into the country was allowed.

 Further, Mr Tsogwane emphasised the need for the country to be self-sufficient in food production.

   He called on Batswana to learn from the pandemic as some districts ran out of food items for the COVID-19 food relief programme.

Government, he said, encouraged citizens to be at the forefront in driving the economy through sectors such as agriculture and tourism.

  Mr Tsogwane said government responded timeously to prevent the spread of the pandemic and possible adverse effects experienced by other countries.

He applauded the health ministry for moving swiftly to ensure accreditation of the national laboratory by WHO so that tests could be conducted locally.

The vice president further commended the private sector, both locally and internationally,  for the role they played saying through their contribution; Botswana continued to effectively fight the virus. 

He praised all other stakeholders such as frontline workers for ensuring that protocols and regulations were followed.

Briefing the vice president earlier, district commissioner for the Southern District, Mr Mmoloki Raletobana commended departments for the spirit of cooperation they showed by pledging resources for sharing.

He said even though generally people were responding well to the new regulations, illegal border crossing along Molopo river villages continued to be a challenge in the fight against COVID-19.

Despited the district command centre having made efforts to educate residents about the dangers posed by illegal crossing, there were still cases of border jumping  between Botswana and South Africa on a daily basis, he said.

Mr Raletobana applauded   members of the public for the tip-offs which helped to identify culprits and quarantine them as per procedure.

On food relief, the district commissioner said the initial miscommunication caused confusion as the general understanding was that all households would be assessed.

He some people benefitted several times as they had registered in different residences which went undetected as the system was not computerized.

For his part, Moshupa sub-council chairperson, Mr Peter Sethibe said the food relief programme experienced challenges of manpower shortage and financial constraints.

He said out of 12 515 households assessed, 10 229 were recommended and duly benefitted from the programme.

Mr Sethibe said the P8 million budget proved  insufficient and had to be topped up with an additional P9 million from council coffers, bringing total expenditure to P17 million. ends