29 Oct 2013

The Member of Parliament for Lobatse, Mr Nehemiah Modubule says rearing of livestock is restricted within Lobatse township.

Addressing a kgotla meeting at Woodhall, Mr Modubule said Lobatse Town Council (LTC) was lenient in enforcing the law that declared Lobatse a livestock free zone. He said LTC should enforce the restriction in order to prevent any complaints from stakeholders and partners in beef markets.  He urged residents to comply with the restrictions.

“If cattle are removed from villages, what more about the township,” he said, adding residents should take proper care of their livestock and drive them to areas designated for rearing livestock.

On other issues, Mr Modubule advised residents especially youth, to develop a spirit of unity and work together as a team. He urged youth to form joint business ventures. He encouraged them to start small and grow with business citing an example of foreigners who came to Botswana, form partnerships, start small and grow with their businesses.

He noted that such foreigners would separate businesses after a while when profit margins grew better to open a second business, which they would monitor and grow without competing between themselves. Mr Modubule told residents that water rationing and restriction would continue until the situation normalised as Nnywane and Bokaa Dams were dry while Gaborone Dam was left with 5 months of supply.

He said Molatedi Dam in South Africa was supplying the country with only 16 percent of water which could be reduced to 8 percent when the water level decreases. Mr Modubule urged residents to stop using portable water for watering their gardens and encouraged them to buy recycled water at Maokaneng where 1000 litres cost P3.00 while 10 000 litres was sold at P30.00.

Briefing residents on registration for elections, Mr Modubule said people should not merely complain about legislators and fail to vote. He said if the complainant did not register and vote the unwanted legislator out, those who registered will vote that legislator in as they will be exercising their constitutional right. He also briefed residents on Lobatse Economic Diversification and the Customary Law Amendment Bill.

Earlier on, Public Relations Assistant from National Food Technology Research Centre (NFTRC) Ms Kemelo Ookeditse said 80 per cent of food in Botswana was imported while the rest was produced locally. She urged Batswana to start producing food from their farms, meat and indigenous food.

Ms Ookeditse urged residents to start meat and meat products factories so that they could augment the efforts of BMC. For their part, residents told the area MP that neighborhood watch programme should be intensified to include cattle patrols. They urged LTC to allow that applications for plots be transferred to their children should they pass away before allocation.

They complained about the unbecoming behavior of Lobatse Secondary School (LOBSEC) students that happens under the nose of school management adding that teachers at LOBSEC were not committed in disciplining students.

Assistant District Commissioner Mr Ernst Phiri concurred with residents that the LOSEC saga was serious as teachers were not performing their duties. Mr Phiri noted that students assembled between the school and Food Resources Department and the school was not taking any action to remedy the situation. ENDS