28 Jan 2026

Member of Parliament for Serowe West, Mr Onalepelo Kedikilwe has implored constituents to assess the country’s competing needs in order to make informed decision during a looming Constitutional Court referendum.

Speaking during a kgotla meeting in Marulamantsi ward in Serowe on Tuesday, Mr Kedikilwe said it would be amiss for him to influence constituents to vote against or in favour of the establishment of the ConCourt.

Therefore, he said assessment of the country’s competing needs would inform constituents to make an appropriate decision. when casting a ballot during a referendum, pointing that it was every individual’s right to universal suffrage.

Furthermore, he said universal suffrage guarantees voting rights to all adult citizens, regardless of gender, race or socio-economic status, thus he noted influencing them would be an infringement of the said rights.

He said their ‘yes or no’ for the establishment of ConCourt was dependent on assessment of competing needs, hence the need to prioritise pressing issues. Mr Kedikilwe said it was paramount to consider prioritising pressing issues such as health and education sectors were bedevilled with challenges and needed urgent attention.

For his part, Headman of arbitration Kgosi Onkemetse Magola of Marulamantsi concurred that there was a lot of competing needs in the area that needed urgent attention.

He said Marulamantsi ward that fell under the catchment area of Mannathoko Primary School in Serowe was too far from the school for pupils more especially beginners and therefore expressed the wish to have standard one to three classes established in the area.

Also, Kgosi Magola decried that over 50 children in Marulamantsi were not schooling and have become street children. He underscored that his area of jurisdiction was facing economic challenges and should be given similar treatment as other abodes of Basarwa people descent such as Malatswae, Mmashoro and Dimajwe.

To this end, he said such categorisation would accord Marualamantsi residents an opportunity to substantially benefit from special dispensation programmes.  

However, constituents were of the view that pressing issues needed urgent attention and therefore should precede ConCourt. They emphasised that they were not against the idea to establish the ConCourt but hinted its timing was off.

Residents requested for a clinic in the area, arguing that there was too much congestion in other health facilities where they accessed services. Constructing a clinic in Marulamantsi would also spare residents time and distance they to endured in search of medical services, they said adding that a plot for the facility was readily available at Sebabi ward.

On other issues, a resident Ms Barulaganyi Kgaogano decried some irregularities in awarding tenders for bread supply in schools. She also complained about delay in payments after supplying bread, which she noted, did not argur well with business.

Ms Kgaogano is of the view that renumerations for people engaged either on attachment or internship basis at various government ministries should be commensurate with their qualifications because ‘they performed similar tasks as their permanent and pensionable counterparts’. BOPA