13 May 2021

Efforts are being made to transition Greater Selebi Phikwe COVID-19 zone from yellow to green.

Speaking in a kgotla meeting addressed by Selebi Phikwe West MP, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse, Coordinator for Greater Selebi Phikwe Regional District Health Management Team (DHMT), Mr Bapaphi Mbulawa said the region which was badly affected by COVID-19 had transitioned from red to yellow.

However, he said  efforts are being done to change the region from yellow to green, adding that it was important for communities in the Selebi Phikwe region to comply with COVID-19 protocols at all times.

He said so far the region had registered a total of 4 974 positive cases with more than 80 per cent recoveries, attributing the high numbers to COVID-19 outbreak in boarding schools particularly Mmadinare and Matshekge senior secondary schools.

Mr Mbulawa said the DHMT managed to contain the outbreaks by deploying a team of nurses and doctors to the affected schools to test and isolate those who tested positive.

He said DHMT had once again taken the decision to conduct COVID-19 testing in boarding schools in the region.

Mr Mbulawa noted that Mmadinare senior school, which initially had 685 positive cases had now registered only three positive cases whilst Matshekge registered only one.

Regarding the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out, he said the region had so far vaccinated 3 776 people with 1 060 in Selebi Phikwe while Bobonong and Mmadinare vaccinated 1 906 and 810 people respectively.

He added that the region received 6 035 doses of vaccine this week and had resumed vaccination.

For his part Selebi Phikwe police Station Commander, Superintendent Meshack Pulenyane raised concern over people who fail to comply with COVID-19 protocols.

He said 102 people were charged for not wearing masks in public places between April and May, whilst 19 were arrested for unlawful gathering. He said 46 were charged for moving around outside curfew hours.

MP Keorapetse commended DHMT for its effort in fighting the pandemic.

On other issues he urged the community to remain hopeful about opening of the BCL mine, pleading with them to give the government time to complete the due diligent process.

Mr Keorapetse also informed the community that he managed to pose a lot of questions in the last parliament sitting which were focused mainly on education.

He said Selebi Phikwe schools’ performance was very impressive hence the need for government to consider improving teachers’ welfare particularly promotions and teachers’ accommodation.

He said a total of 102 teachers were sharing accommodation, adding that 42 of them were married.

The MP said for teachers to continue producing good results their welfare needed to be taken into consideration. 

He said he visited schools in town and a lot of them faced serious shortage of learning and teaching materials as well as shortage of equipment such as printers and photocopying machines.

Mr Keorapetse commended Selebi Phikwe schools for the annual outstanding performance despite challenges they were faced with.

He further informed the community that the economy had gone down by 8.9 per cent, attributing this to a decline in diamond and tourism revenue.

Mr Keorapetse said due to COVID-19 a lot of countries had banned international travels as a measure to contain the spread of the virus. 

He said this in turn affected the tourism sector in the country. Ends