05 May 2022

Residents of Mowana in the Tati East constituency have been informed  that a lot of COVID-19 vaccines had expired and gone to waste because Batswana were not vaccinating.

 Addressing a kgotla meeting in the village on Wednesday, area MP, Dr Douglas Letsholathebe said twice government has had to dispose of expired vaccines.

  He blamed the state of affairs on the preference for certain vaccines over others.

Noting that government used a lot of money to procure vaccines, Dr Letsholathebe said it was disheartening for some Batswana not to be vaccinating.

He called on residents not to be choosy but to vaccinate with whatever COVID-19 medicine was available.

 Dr Letsholathebe also urged Batswana to ignore anti - vaccine school of thought.

  On other matters, the education and skills development minister called on Batswana to transform and find other means of making a living.

“This is the reason why we want to transform this country from a minerals based economy to a knowledge based economy,” he said.

He said other countries such as the United Arab Emirates managed to transform their economies because they embarked on a reset agenda similar to that currently being pursued by government.

    Turning to development issues, Dr Letsholathebe told residents not to despair because discussions to upgrade the village kgotla to headman of records were still underway.

He said they would  be informed  about the outcome of the discussions in due course..

The residents, who had also complained that a planned dam project was not materialising, heard that the idea had not been abandoned.

At Themashanga, Dr Letsholathebe told residents that government would continue to address the issue of shortage of farming and grazing land in the North East District.

On the issue of high water bills, he stated that such complaints were common across the country.

Dr Letsholathebe said he had requested Water Utilities Corporation to address the matter through kgotla meetings. 

He advised residents to utilise the constituency office.

Mowana residents have requested a second dam on the grounds that the current one was too far from the village.

A new dam was necessary for watering the village, livestock as well as for tourism activities and horticulture, they argued.

They also requested support for Sekgopane Traditional Group which will be participating  in this year’s President’s Day competitions. Ends