25 Jan 2013

Kgatleng District Council appreciates the good working relationship that exists between the council bye law division, the business community and the public. 

Kgatleng district principal public relations officer, Ms Thato Chwaane said the good cooperation could be seen from forums such as kgotla and business meetings as well workshops.

She said the bye law division kept a daily complaint register for incoming reports and conducted weekly inspections to monitor businesses, noise and nuisance and other council bye laws.

Ms Chwaane said whenever bye law officers encountered problems when executing their duties, they sought police protection. She added that they engaged in joint patrols with the police during monitoring to help bring peace and security.

She said statistics have revealed a small increase in the number of registered cases. She noted that they registered five cases in the second quarter and six cases in the third quarter while four had been settled.

The two pending cases, she said, are due to failure by offenders to pay fines for admission of guilty.

Ms Chwaane said the division faced challenges of shortage of skilled human resource as there were only five officers to cover 22 villages that make up the Kgatleng district. Two officers had gone for training, she added.

She said the division’s objective was to promote social harmony and cohesion in the community and prevent unfair competition in the business community.

It is mandated to arrest without warrant, a person suspected to have contravened a bye law or any delegated legislation and they can enter and search any premises believed to harbour a person to be arrested.

She said they have powers to seize or detain anything believed to be contravening the bye laws.

Even though Kgatleng District Council said Batswana were cooperative in bringing law offenders to justice, Mochudi police viewed the situation differently.

In an interview, Assistant Superintendent Wazha Zambezi of Mochudi Police said they were troubled by liquor traders including depot operators who do not close on time while others played loud music despite the new regulations.

He appreciated efforts by some Batswana who reported to the police those people selling Chibuku from their homes.

Asst Supt Zambezi said they were working with bye law officers but he realized that the division has problems of shortage of manpower to cover the whole Kgatleng district. BOPA