10 May 2021

Mochudi East Member of Parliament has encouraged his constituents to adhere to COVID-19 protocols.

Mr Mabuse Pule, who is also National Assembly Deputy Speaker, was addressing kgotla meetings in Malolwane, Ramonaka and Mmathubudukwane recently.

Mr Pule told them that there was still no cure for COVID-19 and therefore should adopt the protocols as part of their everyday lives.

He also informed them that the vaccination programme was rolled out at the most affected areas and the elderly aged above 75 in the constituency would still receive their doses as planned.

Some residents had asked the MP about the criteria used to choose areas for vaccination and wondered why their constituency was not included.

Mr Pule also briefed them about the just ended Parliament meeting during which four government Bills were passed including the Appropriation Bill, which contains the recurrent and development budget for 2021/22 financial year.

He noted that another important Bill discussed was the Value Added Tax that had been increased from 12 to 14 per cent as well as the Income Tax which specified the tax bracket for the working class.

However, he encouraged residents to report businesses that misused the tax issue and charged consumers exorbitantly.

On the State of Emergency, Mr Pule also informed residents that such was not extended to punish Batswana as some claimed but was meant to ease the burden of the disease, following advice from the COVID-19 Presidential Task Force Team.

Residents also learnt that Parliament discussed and agreed on government guidelines which included Climate Change, National Energy Policy and Tourism policies.

Mr Pule also said two motions were passed, one requesting government to extend communal areas into wildlife management areas, noting that the extension of land would be used to create land for youth and small scale farmers to expand the agricultural sector.

The other motion requested government to increase the monthly grant given to old-age pensioners. He however noted that the decision to increase the allowances would be reached once the economy had improved. At Malolwane, VDC chairperson, Mr Mothusi Fikeng said there was need to increase of Ipelegeng workers, noting that most river villages in the constituency were burdened by poverty and unemployment, owing to a high number of people who settled in their villages from South African ranches.

He said Ipelegeng was important because it kept criminals at bay, arguing that crime was perpetuated by idleness.

On another issue, he argued for tarring of Modipane-Mabalane Road that connected all the river villages from Sikwane, Mabalane, Mmathubudukwane, Ramonaka, Malolwane, Oliphant to Ramotlabaki.

At Ramonaka, VDC chairperson, Ms Neo Thebe complained that a project to pave internal roads was going at a snail pace.

Ms Thebe also argued that money from the Constituency Fund should be distributed fairly among all villages and that VDC should be given the discretion to use funds on other projects that had been identified.

Also, she expressed concern about toilets at Ramonaka Primary School which she said were in bad state as well as shortage of accommodation for teachers.

She also called on Kgatleng District Council to consider the Social and Community Development office in Ramonaka as well as setting up a satellite police station.

At Mmathubudukwane, residents complained that their landfill was now servicing the whole of Kgatleng District and that trucks that ferried litter sometimes dropped waste along the way.

As such, she challenged the council to pay attention to the matter and address it. Residents also called for extension of the local post office and asked the council to intervene on a matter whereby land board owed VDC huge sums of rental money. Ends