27 Jul 2022

 Annual plans are necessary in guiding developments, Kanye Administrative Authority (KAA), principal community development officer, Pastor Tiroyaone Rampe told a village development committee (VDC) empowerment workshop in Kanye on Tuesday.

Pastor Rampe said such development plans should entail missions and visions, adding that there should be thorough consultations with the community prior to drawing them up.

The training was aimed at building and strengthening the committees’ skills and capabilities to successfully run development initiatives in their respective localities.

The training was also meant for participants to have a common and collective understanding of regulations, acts or policies geared towards transformation to ensure uniformity in carrying out control measures as well as to ensure that communities could identify projects based on their environment.

Pastor Rampe said it was important for village development committees to deliver on their mandates as per the dictates of the law, as well as be accountable in everything they did, to eventually bring developments to communities.

He called for proper coordination between the village development committees and the council to ensure better service delivery.

He said as vehicles of developments in their respective areas, village development committees were intended for all to have a say in the direction of developments in their communities.

Pastor Rampe said all developments should benefit the current and future generations and also cautioned village development committees against mismanagement of resources, saying it was an offence punishable by law.

He said people should contest in elections to push developments, rather than for selfish reasons, which might end up leading to misuse of public funds. 

“It is, therefore, important to carry out these kinds of trainings in order to avert such situations,” he said.

For his part, KAA deputy chairperson, Mr Sebati Kabomo said village development committees were best suited to guide developments since they were close to the people, hence the need for them to take meaningful part in the training.

He further said it was important for village development committee members to be literate in order to successfully carry out their mandates.

Mr Kabomo urged the village development committees to use the limited resources wisely, calling for accountability in the usage of funds.

The KAA community development officer, Mr Emmanuel Motsamai advised committee members to familiarise themselves with village development committee guidelines before starting duty. 

“You have to understand what is expected of you as office bearers,” he stressed, adding that each member should be competent enough to carry out their duties.

Mr Motsamai causioned that those who are bankrupt or had been convicted of any criminal offence in the past 10 years were not allowed to contest for village development committee positions. 

“It is important to attend to your challenges first before contesting for any position,” he said.

Mr Motsamai said even though auditing was expensive, it was vital for each committee to be audited, noting that presenting of quarterly reports could also be used to avoid high costs of auditing.

He called for mindset change in order for the committees to successfully attain the set goals.

He called for resource mapping prior to drawing up the annual developmental plans in order to fully understand where the needs  and their extent in the villages.

The training was held under the theme: Transformational Empowerment: Strategy for improved development in communities. ENDS