19 Sep 2023

Tati East constituency polling districts have been increased from 10 to 11, while polling Stations increased from 32 to 40 following the demarcation exercise.

Meanwhile Tati West constituency polling districts increased from nine to 11 whereas polling stations were increased from 37 to 45.

North East District Council (NEDC) chairperson, Mr Kudzani Tobokwani said this during the NEDC full council on Monday.

Mr Tobokwani said the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) had embarked on a series of meetings in all villages to give constituents feedback regarding the demarcation report.

He urged councillors and the general public to also familiarise themselves with the report well in time before the national registration.

He said the national registration process in preparation for the 2024 general elections would commence beginning of November and end month end.

He advised that eligible voters should be citizens of Botswana, aged above 18 and have a valid national identity Card.

He urged all Batswana to register in large numbers for them to exercise their democratic rights of voting during the 2024 general elections.

Mr Tobokwani told councillors that as a way of working towards the Mindset Change initiative, the district was engaged in a number of consultative meetings with various stakeholders.

The purpose of the meetings, he said, was to allow for identification of pains and enablers with the view to improve service delivery.

“During these meetings, we were able to develop the District Strategic Plan for 2023/2024 financial year, which was the first of its kind,” he said.

He indicated that the plan driven by different departments, would be monitored through the District Development Committee (DDC) report and ultimately full council.

On other issues, he said the year 2022/23 had been declared a severe arable agricultural drought year and it had adversely affected food security at household level and the livelihood in general.

He pointed that in this regard, government came up with relief measures, actions and assistance to cushion the effects of drought until end of June 2024 except for livestock subsidies, which end January 30 next year.

Moreover, he told the council that there were reports of buffalo roaming around Nata, Sowa Town area (Zone 6a), Dukwi area (Zone 3c) and Mosetse area (Zone 6a) adding that in view of these, government had instituted movement protocol for cloven-hoofed animals in affected areas with immediate effects.

Mr Tobokwani noted that the district continued to implement various development projects and programmes during the current financial year aimed at improving socio-economic status of the district.

“These projects include Constituency Community Programme (CCP), Primary School Backlog Eradication Programme, internal and link roads, Destitute Houses and maintenance projects amongst others,” he said.

He said these projects were at different stages of implementation and would be covered in details in the next DDC report.

In other developments, Mr Tobokwani said Tati Land Board set themselves a target of 6 511 plots towards the 100 000 national target for the financial year 2022/2023. To date they have allocated 6 082, representing 93 per cent of the district’s target.

He said the land board was awaiting registration of surveyed plots from Botalaote, Toteng, Patayamatebele and Gungwe to reach the set target. The total of these plots is 449. ENDS