30 Nov 2020

 Malatswai Councilor, Mr Bernard Kenosi says consultations on how Debswana Diamond Company can fund the 6 x 6 km Malatswai community ranch are progressing well.

The community ranch was requested by Malatswai villagers through the Remote Area Development Programme (RADP). In an interview recently,

Mr Kenosi said Malatswai had a functional trust and its members were trained on several aspects of business such as team building, conflict management and trust governance.

He said a P1.4 million memorandum of agreement had already been signed with Debswana Diamond Company to assist on the project.

Mr Kenosi however, said that to deliver the project as a fully-fledged agro tourism project about P7 million was needed.

When updating the councilors on the community development projects for Serowe Administrative Authority (SAA) during an on-going Serowe Sub-council session recently, the District Officer Development (DOD) Ms Itumeleng Peter informed them that Malatswai project was funded with P1million in the first phase and the funds were used to install a perimeter fence as well as part of the paddocking in 2018/2019 financial year which had been completed.

She said P500 000 was approved in the 2019/2020 to cover second phase of development which was de-bushing, construction of farm houses for manager and farm workers, storeroom and ablutions.

She informed councilors that a space designated for building farmhouses had been de-bushed and the office was working on facilitating the process of creating a shorter access road to the farm.

Ms Peter further said that Debswana Diamond Company had also pledged to assist financially and an expression of interest to engage a consultant for the business plan was ongoing.

She also informed the councilors that there was security at the farm and a contractor had been engaged to equip the borehole at the cost of P76 590. ENDS