13 Jul 2021

The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development is aware of shortage of institutional houses at Bophirima and Boswa primary schools in Gaborone Bonnington South.

Answering questions in Parliament on July 12, local government assistant minister, Mr Kgotla Autlwetse, said Boswa Primary School had 19 houses against an establishment of 40 teachers while Bophirima had seven houses against 29 teachers.

Mr Autlwetse added that Gaborone City Council (GCC) also had a total of 379 teachers’ houses against 722 teachers who were eligible for institutional housing.

Given the prevailing situation, he said allocation of teachers’ houses had been centralised and allocation was done by one housing committee instead of each school having its own.

Also, Mr Autlwetse said due to the current economic challenges, the ministry had not made any budgetary provision for construction of additional teachers’ houses at the two schools.

However, he said the ministry, through GCC, would construct two new fully-fledged primary schools inclusive of 48 teachers’ houses under Economic Recovery Transformation Plan (ERTP) during the 2021/22 financial year.

“This will go a long way in alleviating the shortage of institutional housing for teachers in Gaborone,” he added.

Gaborone Bonnington South MP, Mr Christian Greeff, had asked the minister if he was aware of the shortage of institutional houses at the two primary schools in the Gaborone Bonnington South Constituency.

Mr Greeff also wanted to know of plans to address the problem. 

He further asked the minister to brief Parliament on the Housing Policy for teachers in urban areas as well as timelines for such interventions. Ends