27 Aug 2020

Hukuntsi Sub- district Council chairperson, Ms Kebaneilwe Mmesetse has implored Kgalagadi North based business communities to consider reinventing their business models in cogitation of COVID-19 after-effects.

In her opening remarks during the sub-council session on August 25 , Ms Mmesetse said the outbreak of COVID-19 had brought negative repercussions on the local economy.

She said the hardest hit sectors included construction, transportation, hotel and accommodation, agriculture, informal sectors.

She, therefore, beseeched the entrepreneurs across the Sub- district to revise their businesses models such that they would stand the test of time.

Ms Mmesetse encouraged them to diversify their business portfolios and even consider investing in different sectors so that they would not be adversely affected in the event of economic shocks.

She further called all those who had benefitted under different government programmes such as poverty eradication, YDF, CEDAand Women Economic Empowerment to work tirelessly to sustain their businesses during these difficult times.

“For us to be developed as a sub- district, we need to build robust business enterprises that will create job opportunities for our communities,” she said.

She however noted that, upon realising that the COVID -19 pandemic had far reaching impact on the country’s economy, she said government had drafted an Economic Recovery & Transformation Plan (ER&TP) that would provide multiple path ways on how to revitalise the economy and make it more resilient to shocks.

On other issues, the chairperson informed the house that the approved budget for Hukuntsi Sub-district Council for the current financial year was P91.2 million inclusive of income from own sources. 

She, however, said the budget was not sufficient because they had to cut running costs and maintenance of facilities to accommodate salary adjustments that were to be effected in April.

She said the budget was further cut by P4.7 million and that a lot of votes were severely affected.

Ms Mmesetse, therefore, urged council management to exercise due diligence and prudence to ensure that they achieved more with the limited resources at their disposal. She noted that the proposed total budget for the Sub-district for the financial year 2021/22 stood at P186 016 710 inclusive of P1 541330 that she said would be collected from their own sources. ends