16 Mar 2026

Kanye District Council continues to hold the monthly clean-up campaigns following the pronouncement of the initiative by President Advocate Duma Boko during last year  State-of-the nation Address. 

So far, the district has conducted clean up campaigns in Kanye, Moshana and Molapowabojang. Speaking in an interview during the Molapowabojang clean-up campaign held on Friday, Kanye District Council Chief Public Health Officer, Mr Songa Mosweu highlighted that the initiative was bearing fruits as the visible gaps where the district was previously challenged such as poor participation by the community members and limited resources was now made better through collective stakeholder efforts. 

He said the community is encouraged to partake in the exercise adding that the initiative promoted greener habitats and biodiversity protection. Mr Mosweu said the initiative boost their previous clean-up efforts as it commits community leaders with mobilising and enforcing participation. 

“It makes the campaign a grassroots movement rather than a top down directive,” he said. 

As the initiative has other several disciplines included such as, tree planting and landscaping, waste management, maintenance of government buildings, removal of nuisance of any nature, the district leadership was privileged to conduct tree planting at Molapowabojang kgotla and tour some of Molapowabojang institutions; schools in particular.

During the tour, it came to the attention of the district leadership that some infrastructure components especially school drainage systems, needed urgent attention for safety and hygiene purposes in the school environments. On the same note efforts by the district council were also ongoing at Chichi Junior Secondary School to clear off unwanted rubble from the school premises. 

Principal Forest and Range Resource officer, Ms Keamogetse Tselakgosi said cleaning up is not only about dealing with waste, but also about provision of clean oxygen in the environment, which is much needed by humans. 

She said as such, trees had become part of the cleaning up campaign and therefore urged the community to partake in tree planting at their homes to promote availability of oxygen in the air. She noted that it had come to their knowledge that many people cut down trees especially for firewood. 

“Today as the country overpopulate, the population is outgrowing wood harvesting particularly from dead trees and now resorting to cutting down live trees and drying them for firewood and building materials,” Ms Tselakgosi said. 

She said the activity disturbs the biodiversity life and contributes to insufficient supply of oxygen in the atmosphere due to slow growth of trees and their life span which she said could range from 30 to 40 years before it could become wood and ready for harvesting. 

In an effort to promote tree planting towards cleaner and healthier environments, the department of Forestry and Range Resources donated 40 trees to Molapowabojang community out of which 10 were presented to the community wards while 30 were given to institutions.

Mosikiri tree which is found in Chobe and Ngamiland District for provision of shade and the Motlhware tree commonly found in Kanye were planted at the kgotla and during that time, a tree planting demonstration was made to the Molapowabojang community to guide them on the right way to planting a tree. 

One of the residents Ms Kopamotse Ntereke of Ntomaloma ward expressed gratitude over the tree planting demonstration saying that she now understands why her tree planting never became successful, attributing it to her poor planting skills due to lack of guidance. BOPA