Bitterness rules Marapong as Sebina gets police station
Patricia Edwin | Wednesday May 14, 2014 15:39
For more than 10 years, Sebina and the surrounding villages on the one hand and Marapong on the other, have been calling for a police station to be located in their village.
But recently, the Minister of Defence, Justice and Security, Ramadeluka Seretse announced in a letter addressed to Kgosi Kgakanyane Sebina that the police station will be constructed at Sebina Junction once funds permit.
In the letter dated January 20, 2014, Seretse said he was responding to a correspondence from Kgosi Kgakanyane dated November 4, 2013.
Seretse said Marapong would be among the villages that will benefit from the police station. However, the brief correspondence from Seretse could not state when the project would take off and how much it would cost.
He further said that in the meantime, government will increase resources and officers to improve visibility of the police in the area.
Before this announcement, the issue of where the police station would be located was characterised by a lot of controversy between Marapong and Sebina, with residents of the two villages at loggerheads.
While the councillor for Sebina village Mogomotsi Lemogang was ecstatic about the announcement, Marapong headman, Bakani Mampori said the news shocked him.
Lemogang said it was pleasing to finally get the police station that they had initially been promised.
He said that they were confident that Sebina Junction was the area that would be able to service all villages because it is central.
In a telephone interview, Mampori said that he was surprised to hear that Sebina received a letter from Seretse because he said at last year’s meeting the minister had promised to respond appropriately.
“He said that he would let each village know the decision. We have not received anything here but we have heard those talks that Sebina has been written a letter and given the police station,” he said.
He said that he was stunned by the lack of transparency on the matter.
Apparently, the location of the police station was such a hot potato in those days that it changed hands a few times. Sebina was the first to be granted the police station, but later it was changed and the police station was given to Marapong.
In 2006 residents of the two villages began to tussle over the issue with each one trying to justify why their area was the most suitable to get a police station.
Sebina later sent a task force to then president Festus Mogae and it was later decided that the police station would be built in both villages, but the government had no funds.
Last year the issue resurfaced when it was decided that the police station would go to Marapong. However, Sebina village leadership moved fast to engage the minister who came to address them and promised to get back to them with a response.