Kedikilwe launches Van Der Westerhuizen in Tsabong
Zolani Kraai | Thursday August 14, 2014 12:19
The vice president and BDP chairman Ponatshego Kedikilwe embraced Van Der Westerhuizen’s nomination as the people’s choice to represent the Kgalagadi residents in Parliament. Kedikilwe said Van Der Westerhuizen portrays visionary leadership during his term as councillor for BORAVA (Bokspits, Rappelspan and Vaalhoek) villages for 15 years.
Kedikilwe further told the gathering that since independence, government has initiated programmes aimed at improving Batswana’s lives such as access to health care and ensuring that people of Kgalagadi access potable water.
“We also ensured and stipulated in our manifesto that Kgalagadi residents benefit from the accelerated poverty eradication programmes that have since proved successful since their inception,” said Kedikilwe.
Another speaker, prominent businessman and former Tsabong councillor Tshipietsile Mothelesi narrated the history of the district by highlighting the difficult terrains traversed from the 60’s towards the 80’s.
He described the progress and process of developing the district as strenuous. “There were no roads in Kgalagadi. We often spent four days travelling from Tsabong to Gaborone. There was only one borehole in the village. We now have bitumen standard roads accessible to every surrounding village and potable water for human consumption,” narrated Mothelesi. He also said with potential mining of various minerals in the Kgalagadi, the BDP government would be better placed to lead in the commissioning of mines in order to facilitate creation of employment for the residents. For his part, Van Der Westerhuizen said he intends to topple the district from Botswana National Front’s incumbent John Toto.
“If given the opportunity to represent you, I will ensure that through proper consultation and collaboration effort with relevant stakeholders all planned projects initially earmarked for the current National Development Plan 10. The forthcoming plan will take into consideration the importance of improving our country’s economy,” he said.