26 May 2025

District activities such as ‘taking services to the people’ could bear results if there was further monitoring and follow up visits thereafter.

Kgosi Mogomotsi Marotwane of Machana emphasised this during the ‘taking services to the people’ activity hosted by Moshupa District Commissioner’s office in Machana recently. Kgosi Marotwane raised concerns that, despite services being brought closer to them in remote areas, there was no proper follow up to services rendered especially that the services came once, sparingly over a long period of time. He cited services which required filling of forms such as those for funding, noting that the youths in the village needed further assistance or monitoring to complete the forms. 

Without such assistance, the community leader said there would never be progress in such areas “since the officers just distribute forms and fail to keep up with the clients,” he said. He said the situation is worsened by lack of financial means to travel to seek services saying Machana residents lived in utter poverty.

Kgosi Marotwane further decried lack of health assistance despite the health office’s visits twice a month. He said expectant mothers were at high risk since the residents accessed health services at Pitseng and Sese which were far away from Machana. He said the situation led to unexpected home deliveries, adults and newborn mortalities at times which he attributed to lack of transport or transport fees as well as the long distances travelled to the nearest health post.

On other issues, Kgosi Marotwane raised concern over the current trend in his village where the youth do not have regard for each other and the elders. He said the trend was most common with females especially after drinking home brews. Kgosi Marotwane expressed concerns for his village, saying it was not fully resourced in terms of having a police officer, a doctor and a nurse. However, he hailed the Thuo Letlotlo services as the only service residents once received that made an impact as many benefitted in acquiring livestock.

Moshupa Deputy District Commissioner, Mr Boyce Mangole said his office had a monthly schedule in which each village in the district was paid a visit by various government departments to bring services closer to the people. He noted that the office had selected Machana to meet their service needs following resident’s complaints in the past visit. He assured residents that the office would continue bringing services on selected dates. ENDS