15 Jan 2013

Malwelwe residents in the Letlhakeng East constituency have complained about shortage of text and exercise books at the village's primary school.

Presenting the Village Development Committee (VDC) report during a kgotla meeting addressed by the area MP, Mr Liakat Kablay, on Monday,  VDC chairperson, Mr Matshediso Makgwapha said the school had been without such basic items for some time now, something he said might impact negatively on the school’s overall academic performance.

He said the school library was no exception as it also did not have books. On other issues, Mr Makgwapha said residents had complained about lack of progress on development issues they constantly requested from their leaders.

Of note, he said was tarring of the 24km Malwelwe/Letlhakeng road, upgrading of  health post to a clinic as well as connection of electricity at the kgotla offices, among others.

He added that the villagers had been requesting for such developments for over three years yet there were no satisfactory answers.

In his response, Mr Kablay said exercise and text books should be tendered for well in time so that their delivery could coincide with the beginning of the academic year.

The MP added that the council should be aware of the procedure because it was a standard practice. He also stated that he was informed that the council was still placing advertisements of invitation to tender, which he argued could have been done on time.

“It is a matter of following procedure, and councillors should talk about these issues with the council authorities,” Mr Kablay said.  He informed residents that government intended to upgrade all health posts around the country to the status of clinics.

However, he said lack of funds due to the global recession had hampered such efforts. He said when funds are available, Malwelwe health post will also be covered under such arrangement.

He said other issues such as the connection of electricity to the kgotla office as well as the tribal administration vehicle were pending owing to lack of funds. He told the meeting that Malwelwe/Letlhakeng road was not planned for because it did not appear in the tenth National Development Plan (NDP 10).

On a different issue, Mr Kablay expressed disappointment that Kweneng District Council recently reported that it had returned around P5 million meant for poverty eradication programmes, out of which they only used around P80 000.

That, he said, was despite the fact that Kweneng was one of the regions hard hit by poverty.

However, Malwelwe ward councillor, Mr Lefty Ramotswai said such funds were not released during the beginning of the financial year, but from the Office of the President around August.

He said as at November when the council chairman presented the issue, the council had used only the said P80 000. ENDS