08 May 2022

Residents of Maokane in the Mmathethe-Molapowabojang constituency have been urged to exercise patience in their request for the tarring of the road linking their village to the mining town of Jwaneng. 

Area Member of Parliament, Dr Edwin Dikoloti made the plea when addressing a kgotla meeting in the village on Thursday. 

Dr Dikoloti concurred there was need to tar the road, and promised residents that he would make it top priority among constituency projects whose construction he would be advocating. 

He said already he had had discussions with the leadership of Debswana Jwaneng mine to explore the possibility of the mine assisting. 

He said before the recent cabinet reshuffle he had agreed with the then minister, Mr Thulaganyo Segokgo to visit the village to address residents on the issue. 

He promised to approach the new minister responsible for roads to visit the village. 

“I will not rest until the road is done, but the challenge is that the last two years have been bad for government economically, which led to budget tightening,” he said 

He said in the meantime, he would ensure that the long-pending tender for re-gravelling of the road was awarded. 

That would allow for grading of the road at least twice a month, he said. 

“Maokane is an agricultural hub and so deserves a good road to the markets. This is why the road is vital,” he said. 

Dr Dikoloti also informed residents that government had budgeted about P3 billion for the maintenance of government buildings across the country. Most of the contracts would be given to locals, he said. 

At the same meeting, Jwaneng District Health Management Team (DHMT) head, Ms Goitsemang Mothibi informed residents that it would not be possible to upgrade their clinic to a 24 hour facility in the near future due to staff shortage. 

She said that the facility currently had seven nurses and a doctor who worked normal shifts, with the doctor and one nurse being on call at any time. 

“The facility also has a maternity ward, and as things stand, turning it into a 24 hour facility will mean that the outpatient department will need 18 nurses as well as a further 18 for the maternity ward. We will also need two additional doctors,” she said. 

She said it was not practical, therefore, looking at the fact that they had only six doctors in the whole DHMT area. 

Ms Mothibi also said the situation was not expected to improve soon as nurses were resigning in large numbers nationally for greener pastures. 

She was responding after the VDC chairperson, Ms Onkabetse Obeeng raised the need to upgrade the clinic to 24 hours service. Ends