23 Sep 2013

Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Peter Siele has told residents of Maokane that government has taken a decision to undertake backlog eradication to address shortage of office and staff accommodation.

Addressing a kgotla meeting in the village recently, Mr Siele noted that plans were underway to build classrooms, toilets and teachers’ houses. He said by the end of this year there would be a way forward on how this exercise would be undertaken.

In the meantime, the minister urged residents to build houses which could be rented out to government. He said that would empower the local people as well as contribute to the development of their village.

He appealed to those with a sizeable number of cattle to sell some and build houses which government could rent for officers. He was responding to concerns that there was shortage of classrooms as well as staff accommodation in Maokane.

The chairman of the Village Development Committee (VDC), Mr Kelebemang Sekoba noted that there was shortage of nurses’ houses, and that their clinic did not have a doctor due to lack of accommodation. He also noted that a classroom block at Maokane primary school had been under construction for the past two years, but it was yet to be completed.

That, he said, resulted in shortage of classroom space at the school. On other issues, Mr Siele told residents that government buildings within the national electricity grid would be electrified this financial year. That, he explained, included schools, clinics as well as staff houses. He said instead of increasing the national grid, the money would be channeled towards electrifying those already within the grid.

Even though government was aware of the need for secretaries in primary schools, he said it could not be addressed in the short term because it would increase the challenge of office accommodation. He acknowledged that head teachers were doing a lot of work, some of which could be done by secretaries. However, he noted that government continued to train school personnel, including head teachers, on computer skills so as to make their work easier. ENDS