27 Sep 2022

Residents of villages in the Jwaneng-Mabutsane constituency want Jwaneng Township detached from the rest of the constituency. 

Making contributions before the delimitation commission at Mabutsane and Khakhea on Monday, representatives of all the villages around the constituency were in agreement that the constituency was too wide for one area member of parliament, thereby calling for its division in to two. 

After being briefed on factors that could contribute to the creation of a constituency such as population density, availability or lack of means of communication and natural community interest among others, a representative of Mabutsane, Mr Abram Molatole said that the population density factor would work against the area as the population of Botswana was mostly concentrated along the eastern strip. 

He however, said that other factors were applicable in the area to warrant an additional constituency. 

“This constituency has many bad roads, which make it hard to traverse. Lack of infrastructure also favours its division because we lack basic amenities such as hospitals, which make access to services costly,” he said. 

His sentiments were echoed by Mr Kegomoditswe Mosupi, a representative of Kokong who proposed that if Jwaneng could be made a stand-alone constituency, some villages around Jwaneng, which were initially within the constituency could be returned.

“These villages include Machana, Pitseng, Seherelela, Lefhoko and Betesankwe among others. These villages used to be part of this constituency back then when it was known as Ngwaketse West, but we lost them during past delimitations,” he said. 

In Khakhea, residents also echoed the same proposal, saying that the constituency was too vast to be managed by one member of parliament. 

As a stand-alone constituency, Jwaneng could be augmented with villages within its 40km radius, they argued.  

“The constituency runs from Morwamosu to Thankane, with bad roads. Most of the time our area MP is forced to cut some of his kgotla meetings short because of time constraints,” argued Kweenyane Tshoganetso, a representative of Khakhea. 

Residents also argued that the population density factor should not be given much consideration when it came to their constituency, saying that although the area was well populated, it was not reflective in the past population census because of urban migration, and that most residents worked in nearby farms, which are in other constituencies. 

They argued that they nonetheless share amenities with them as they time and again came back home. Ms Bofelo Bakae of Keng said that in terms of natural community interests, Jwaneng had nothing in common with all the 16 villages, which among themselves, had everything in common. 

Residents of these villages could however, not agree on the proposals for the new constituency name, with some proposing Mabutsane constituency, while others wanted it to return to its former name of Ngwaketse West, which they believed was neutral. ENDS