14 Oct 2020

Consultations are underway to establish a television production incubation centre in the Kanye North cconstituency.

Addressing a consultative meeting on Monday October 12, Member of Parliament, Mr Thapelo Letsholo, told Kanye residents that stakeholders were working round the clock to secure a place for the project, while consultations with sponsors were also ongoing.

The centre is intended to promote creative industry while at the same time creating employment for young graduates.

“The high unemployment rate calls for innovation to create jobs for young people. 

There are a lot of young graduates who have the skills, but do not have equipment to operate and therefore we are consulting with prospective sponsors for such equipment,” he said.

The Member of Parliament  noted that government was prepared to increase Botswana Television’s budget to buy local content. 

He said after the establishment of the TV production centre, young people would be called to make proposals for their productions.

Mr Letsholo urged residents to always abide by COVID-19 health protocols in the wake of rising local transmissions, noting that the country currently recorded over 100 cases daily, which he said called for extra caution from Batswana.

“We are no longer talking imported cases as was initially the case because local transmissions continue to increase every day. 

We all need to take responsibility to fight this pandemic because our health sector does not have the capacity to manage it, should the cases escalate further,” he noted.

It is against this backdrop, he said, that Parliament found it appropriate to support the extension of the State of Emergency (SOE) for a further six months, to help the government to make quick decisions in as far as managing COVID-19 is concerned.

The Kanye legislator noted that even though efforts had been made to promote COVID-19 protocols in schools, more needed to be done to keep the pandemic at bay, noting that social distancing in some schools was still a challenge due to shortage of classrooms.

On gender based violence (GBV), he called for the  establishment of specialised police units to preserve the dignity of victims. 

He said most police stations were not capacitated to give victims the privacy they deserve, hence rendering efforts to fight GBV fruitless.

“Police stations should give them that privacy and there should be a direct line to report such crimes to avoid embarrassment and humiliation they experience at community service centres,” he said.

For their part, the residents applauded the Member of Parliament for being vocal on issues affecting the constituency. 

Mr Jakoba Radipitse urged government to allocate a dairy production plot in Kanye in order for local farmers to have an organised market. 

He also said government should help farmers with solar-operated boreholes. ENDS