17 Mar 2021

COVID-19 cases in the Kweneng District continue to be on the rise with cumulative cases at 8 965 of registered cases as of March 11 since the start of the pandemic.

In his opening speech during a virtual council meeting, Kweneng District Council chairperson, Mr Motlhophi Leo said Mogoditshane/Thamaga had the highest number of registered cases, which translated to 61 per cent of the total number of cases registered in the whole district.

Further, the chairperson mentioned that the district currently had 1 747 active cases with recoveries standing at 7 192 and a total of 26 deaths. 

He extended his deepest condolences to Mohumagadi MmaKgari Sechele, who succumbed to COVID-19 in the past week and was buried on March 12.

Mr Leo also notified councillors of his visit to Medie Coal Mine as one of his stakeholder engagements to appreciate the mine’s operations as well as issues of common interest including concerns emanating from the community.

He said some of the major concerns that had been giving communities living near the mine sleepless nights included the state of Lentsweletau-Medie road, noise and dust pollution caused by heavy traffic and road accidents.

He said the mine management had committed to grade the Lentsweletau-Medie road on a regular basis to ensure safety to its users.  

Moreover, he said there was constant use of dust compressors to prevent health threats to people, livestock and vegetation as water spraying had proved to be an unsustainable solution.

As a long term solution, he said the mine had undertaken to construct an alternative route passing through Dikgonnye village in the Kgatleng District.

On other issues, the council chairperson said he was concerned by the declining performance of learners in the district from primary to senior secondary schools as evidenced by this year’s results.  

He said some of the reasons attributed to the low results included inadequacy of teaching resources such as textbooks.

He said the region had come up with strategies to improve performance, one of them dubbed  Operation Maduo. ends