26 Nov 2023

Despite Lobatse being a town of many firsts and its past celebrated, the town has now become last as far as development projects distribution is concerned.

Contributing to the State-Of-the-Nation Address debate  on November 23, the Lobatse Member of Parliament, Dr Thapelo Matsheka said the quality of infrastructure in Lobatse did not reflect its status as a town.

“Public institutions that were headquartered in Lobatse such as the Teachers Training College, High Court and Court of Appeal have since been relocated or become just branches, making the town even ghosty,” he said.

Mr Matsheka said in that regard, banks were reluctant to support mortgages in Lobatse because of suppressed incomes and lack of opportunities.

To address such a situation and others similar, Dr Matsheka therefore recommended that government should harmonise development strategies and model of development government had  adopted.

“The idea is that the established National Planning Commission (NPC) should take away from the politicians and the temptation of promising people what they cannot deliver,” he said.

Dr Matsheka said Members of Parliament should only provide oversight as they had no capacity to deliver projects. He said it was a pity that despite establishing NPC, development planning was still mostly constituency-based, thereby exposing it to the influence of politicians.

He said NPC would help distribute projects fairly and it would identify key centres where certain services needed to be delivered.

“When one worries about national posture they worry about the distribution of services in a manner that ensures that those are not unevenly distributed,” he said.

Dr Matsheka also said the NPC would guard against unnecessary duplication of projects.

He said this would also help address the current situation where some government facilities lie underutilised because they were constructed where they were less required.

“In a constituency-based planning model we see the anomaly where villages develop faster than towns,” he said.

Dr Matsheka also cautioned against sacrificing private sector development in favour of citizen participation as the two should go hand in hand.

“We need to develop the private sector without pushing out foreign investors even though the idea is that the private sector that we seek to develop should be pregnant with citizen participation,” he said.

On other issues, Dr Matsheka urged government to tighten border security, especially along villages such as Phihetshwane, Tlhareseleele and Valleyview.

He said the border fence along these villages was dilapidated, making it easy to rustle livestock across the border.

He said there were instances where some farmers have been forced to abandon their cattle posts because of the rustling. ENDS