11 Mar 2021

The Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Kabo Morwaeng, says operational boundaries of government departments that are not harmonised with administrative districts undermine planning and access to services.

Responding to a question in Parliament on Wednesday, the minister said this was due to scarcity of resources to deploy officers around the country at the time of independence.

He said the challenge had long been observed by the 1979 and 2001 Local Government Structure Presidential Commissions.

The minister said the commissions made recommendations, which were accepted by government that the boundaries should be harmonised.

Considering that some departments had already invested in delineating and developing infrastructure for their operations, it would take time for the administrative boundaries to be harmonised, he said.

The minister said government’s planning in service delivery, including spatial planning was undermined by sector specific delineation of operation.

Some of the challenges were addressed by the National Spatial Plan, which while observing the importance of harmonisation with administrative boundaries, had identified regions along broad themes of economy, mobility, environment, governance and social development, he said.

He said the plan would provide a strategic framework from a national perspective to guide lower level regional and settlement development.

Talking about dividing the Central District, Mr Morwaeng said government would continue to assess the effectiveness of districts both large and small without affecting the communal, traditional and cultural homogeneity as they had been over the years.

“It has been decided to approach this holistically as it entails extensive consultations with affected councils and communities to ensure that all requisite steps are taken into consideration as prescribed by the Local Government Act of 2012,” he said.

This, the minister said, would be determined by resource availability and efficiency.

He also said it might not affect only Central District, but other districts such as Southern, Kweneng and North West

Specially Elected MP, Dr Unity Dow, had asked the minister whether the current subdivision of the country into ministerial districts, police districts, council districts, tribal territories, educational regions, land boards undermine planning for and access to services.

She also asked the minister whether he accept that spatial planning was undermined by the current multiple layered and sector specific carving of the country.

Dr Dow further asked the minister whether he did not consider it overdue for the Central District to be subdivided to promote efficient provision of services to the population living within that vast area. ENDS