08 Oct 2023

Kgatleng District Council wrapped up its third session of the 2023 full council meeting on Friday by adopting two motions, rejecting one and withdrawing one.

One of the adopted motions tabled by councillor for Modipane, Mr Basimanekhumo Hule requested the council to temporarily cease the decision to evict street vendors around the Rural Administration Centre area and elsewhere within the district.

The motion requested that the council must instead launch an awareness campaign to sensitise vendors on byelaw requirements.

When tabling the motion, Cllr Hule argued that vendors should be warned thoroughly before the decision to evict them was reached, particularly that most vendors were ignorant of the byelaws and needed to be capacitated.

Councillors for Boseja Central Molemane Maje, Mabalane/Sikwane Seth Sekate and Councillor for Morwa, Opakile Setlhabi supported the motion and concurred that vendors should be sensitised, be encouraged to clean their surroundings and be monitored frequently to ensure they complied with the byelaws.

When contributing to the debate, Cllr for Pilane, Goitsemodimo Pitse and Cllr for Bokaa, Joseph Sebina wanted to know the rationale for tabling the motion as they were of the view that there was no eviction going on.

Councillor Pitse further argued that it was high time street vendors braced themselves for stern measures against breaking the byelaws as Mochudi had since been declared a planning area and therefore would require that rules be followed. 

He reasoned that as long as there were no toilets for street vendors, it meant that byelaws were not followed to the latter.

Debating the motion, Councillor for Mmathubudukwane, Gaonyadiwe Bogatsu did not support the motion, arguing that vendors were not following procedures of street vending as they erected permanent structures, encroached on the road reserve and made the streets unsightly.

Instead, he was of the view that the council should erect some makeshift structures that were well designed and arranged for vendors so that it looked organised and sightly.

Meanwhile, Kgatleng District deputy council secretary for Finance and Administration, Mr Lucky Maoto advised the council that the intention of the council was never to evict vendors, but was to facilitate them.

He, however, said the council was worried about the unsightly aesthetics around the Rural Administration Centre as most vendors operated in its vicinity making it unsightly.

Mr Maoto further said the council would in future consider rearranging the vendors nicely and ensuring that weekly cleanliness activities were carried out and that those that were not complying with the byelaws would be charged accordingly.

Another motion adopted was tabled by councillor for Boseja South, Mr Gomolemo Gouwe who had requested the council to ask the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs to come up with a law in which legally married couples in community of property would have their names appear on certificates of property such as land, livestock brand, cars and boreholes, among other things.

He argued that appearance of married people in their communal property would ease way of doing things when one partner was abroad.

Cllr Gouwe said married people experienced challenges when the certificate only had one name appearing in it, as they had to seek consent of the other partner.

While councillors were of the view that married people were well covered under their marriage in community of property certificates, they agreed that some amendments could be made to include such.

Councillors also rejected another motion tabled by Councillor Gouwe asking the Ministry of Agriculture to allow certified artificial inseminator to be allowed to buy synchronising medication directly without routing through veterinary officers.

The motion was rejected on the basis that already the artificial insemination centres were capacitated to do synchronisation.

The mover of the motion reasoned that while this was an ongoing practice in Botswana, as it was launched by President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi last year at Dibete, it was high time the bureaucracy of having government employed veterinary officers selling medication was cut short by allowing individuals to buy directly for themselves.

Other councillors had also argued that certified artificial inseminators were important for administering such for due diligence and not leaving such a task to herd boys as some were ignorant or not educated enough to follow the instructions thoroughly.

The council further withdrew a motion tabled by Cllr Gouwe requesting the house to ask the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to consider upgrading byelaw enforcement cadre to council police as it was a practice in neighbouring countries, where municipals have their own policing staff to ensure byelaws were followed.

The motion was withdrawn on the basis that already the Local Government Act allows for that, but it was not fully operationalised due to scarcity of resources and budgetary constraints on the part of district councils.

Meanwhile, Kgatleng District Council chairperson, Mr Daniel Molokwe appealed to councillors to treat the council business with utmost respect it deserved.

He said he observed that some councillors did not observe the rules of conduct during the sitting and that officials should equally avail themselves for the full council to answer for queries raised about their departments and to advise the council accordingly. ends