22 Jun 2021

Kgatleng District councillors have expressed support for the proposed national decentralisation policy saying it was long overdue.

Reacting to Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Kgotla Autlwetse’s presentation during a virtual full council meeting yesterday,  they said councils were currently operating with their hands tied.

That was because the resource allocation process involved  ministry headquarters, they said.

They said the proposed policy, which seeks to devolve powers and responsibilities to local authorities, would be handy in strengthening accountability and coordinating development at district level.

In his presentation, Mr Autlwetse pointed out that decentralisation in Botswana had always been done piecemeal which led to ineffectiveness of district councils resulting in poor service delivery.

He said the current situation of  ineffective planning at local level, unclear positioning of dikgosi and inadequate empowerment of district authorities bred a plethora of deficiencies.

The status quo, he said, had not served the country well and resulted in endless complaints of development stagnation.

Through the policy, the aim was to empower local authorities to develop rural areas and grow local economies through ideas brainstormed and agreed within districts, he said.

Mr Autlwetse said it would also bring services closer to  communities and expedite service delivery.

The proposed policy would empower district councils to create revenue streams and minimise dependence on Revenue Support Grant from central government, said the assistant minister.

“This overly dependence on money from central government has bred failure to our delivery part,” he said.

Mr Autlwetse said the proposal also encouraged effective planning through involvement of local structures in the process.

With the policy, effective instruments for identifying citizens’ needs and local development priorities would be well coordinated with proper basis for public expenditure allocation, said Mr Autlwetse.

In addition, sub-district councils would decongest mother council structures by making services more accessible to communities.

The assistant minister said with population increase in most villages, sub-districts needed to be equipped to enable them to run their own budgets instead of depending on main district councils.

Mr Autlwetse also clarified misconceptions that implementation of the policy might result in tribal conflicts.

 “Contrary to the misconceptions that had factored tribal territories into the idea of making local structures autonomous, the intention is to improve services and state of developments at district level without any impediments,” he stated.

Giving South Africa as an example, he said municipalities which were given autonomy  had become successful. Ends