11 Oct 2020

Botswana Association of Local Authorities (BALA) president, Councillor Jeffrey Sibisibi has called on councils to ensure efficient implementation of key development agendas.

Giving a keynote address at the first BALA retreat in Kasane recently, Mr Sibisibi said agendas such as the National Development Plan 11, Vision 2036 and the United Nations (UN) Agenda 2030, which had common aspirations to deliver sustainable economic developments to reduce inequalities, should be achieved through concerted efforts by all sectors including the councils.

He observed that councils were key in ensuring that development priorities were adequately delivered and he was committed to providing strategic leadership for the advancement and achievement of such.

Mr Sibisibi noted that President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s road map was committed to the aspirations of Vision 2036 of transforming Botswana from an upper middle income to a high income knowledge based economy. 

As such, he said councils needed to harness skills for purposes of propelling the country towards that transformation.

The government, through Vision 2036, Mr Sibisibi said was committed to achieving prosperity for all, therefore local authorities remained a key governance sphere to ensure Batswana were facilitated to meaningfully participate in transforming the economy and lessening dependency on social safety nets from the government.

The BALA president said as a member of the UN and global family of nations, Botswana subscribed to international protocols and agendas, as such local authorities should play a key role to domestication, localisation and implementation of the agendas for them to be responsive to the needs of Batswana.

“It is thus upon us to position ourselves for the implementation of the envisaged decentralisation policy as a tool to achieve prosperity, self-reliance and independence of our people,” he said.

Mr Sibisibi noted that although decentralisation was a desirable governance practice, it placed added responsibilities on local authorities among them the need to develop revenue streams to fund their development priorities at local level.

He said it was imperative for local authorities to position themselves and start devising means for revenue generation by taking advantage of the current government funding to cultivate investment opportunities.

“I sincerely believe that if we engage in deliberate efforts to establish investment arms coordinated by a professional board, we will be able to create a vehicle for revenue generation for our councils,” he said.

On other issues, Mr Sibisibi raised a concern about societal and moral decay resulting in increased violence of all sorts.

He noted that of late there had been an alarming increase in cases of gender based violence and abusive behaviour by students towards teachers and even other students.

He said the rate at which lives were lost due to passion killings did not reflect well on the nation and there was need to eradicate the inhumane acts as they defeated one of the pillars on which Botswana was built on; Botho.

Mr Sibisibi said councillors as leaders could not sit back and watch the values that had set Botswana apart from the rest of the world deteriorate in oblivion.

He said the local authorities should mobilise their communities to re-work the values that made Botswana a beacon and model of moral values.

Regarding the retreat, he said it was delayed due COVID-19 and the choice of Kasane demonstrated their support to contribute to resuscitating the tourism sector as it was one of the key contributors to Gross Domestic Product after minerals.

Earlier in his welcome remarks, Kasane deputy court president, Kgosi Tshegofatso Samuka thanked BALA for choosing Kasane for their retreat, saying by so doing they were contributing to the revival of the tourism sector, which was hard hit by COVID-19. ends