24 Sep 2013

The government has resolved to make provision of vehicles to various departments a priority issue, Vice President Dr Ponatshego Kedikilwe told Mogobane residents recently.

He said the government was aware of transport shortage across the entire civil service, and that vehilces would be bought as soon as funds became available. He warned, however, that there would still be shortage and that people should appreciate government efforts. He was responding to complaints by VDC chairperson, Ms Johana Marope who said the village social welfare office and the police were unable to carry out their duties due to lack of transport.

She also said since the local police were redeployed to Botswana Police Service they had never been capacitated. Dr Kedikilwe said another issue of priority was accommodation for public officers. He said it had been given priority through the public officers housing scheme. Under the scheme, he said Batswana would be given an opportunity to build houses that the government would lease for its employees. However, Dr Kedikilwe said the government was still working on the guidelines of the scheme.

Commenting, residents asked that the South East District Council should designate a sub district to service the villages of Otse and Mogobane. They said this would address poor service delivery that the villages were getting from the main council. A resident, Mr Sisimogang Abram said Otse Police College should be part of Mogobane.
He said the fact that the college was not treated as part of Mogobane disadvantaged them, as population played a big role in allocation of development projects. Mr Oshima Pelotshweu added that they grew up knowing that the area in which the police college was situated formed part of Mogobane. On other issues, Mr Pelotshweu said their efforts to resuscitate the village cooperative society had proved futile as they could not access money from their bank.

He said the bank insisted on death certificates of previous signatories who have died, adding that there were no such certificates and that this complicated the matter. ENDS