Moipisi decries the poverty of Kgalagadi North
Lekopanye Mooketsi | Friday August 29, 2014 15:09
The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) parliamentary candidate Itumeleng Moipisi said interactions with the constituencies has exposed him to the reality of the rate of poverty in the region. He lists poverty as one of the issues that he is going to address if he is elected into Parliament.
A veteran BDP activist in the Jwaneng/Mabutsane area Moipisi, who is contesting elections for the first time, plans to fight poverty through the government poverty eradication programmes.
He believes there are many government poverty eradication programmes that could be beneficial to the people. “I am going to encourage people to take advantage of such programmes,” he said.
Another burning issue on Moipisi’s agenda is youth unemployment. The BDP candidate says if he is elected into Parliament, he is going to compile a database of unemployed youth in the constituency. He will then come up with a needs assessment of what each individual is capable of.
To him, the ‘one size fits all’ approach is not effective for the youth. He said there is no need to send somebody who is not gifted academically back to school. Instead, he belives such young people should be provided with relevant needs like technical training. He will ensure that young people are provided with life survival skills that teach them how to conduct themselves at job interviews and even business management skills.
Moipisi is also concerned about the standard of education in the Kgalagadi schools. He said Kgalagadi schools have become some of the worst performing nationally. He said there is need to address the education situation in Kgalagadi.
If he becomes a legislator, he is going to advocate for the provision of resources for schools in terms of facilities and qualified teachers. He said some schools have been retaining temporary teachers who might not be trained.
He gave the example of one school where a temporary teacher has been teaching for three years. Some of the temporary teachers, he said, might be graduates but are not trained in teaching.
Moipisi said schools in the settlements do not have electricity and this contributes to the poor quality of education. This is mainly due to the fact that students are not exposed to computers and other technologies.
If elected, the BDP man wants to invite professionals and business leaders to give students motivational talks.
He also intends to sensitise and encourage parents to get children to start attending school early. He believes the introduction of pre-schools would make a difference to the education.
Moipisi is also disappointed in the inadequate infrastructural development in Kgalagadi, citing specifically the poor road conditions.
“We also want to request a sewerage systems and street lights notably in big villages. There is no village with street lights in Kgalagadi,” he said. Moipisi would also like to see some efficiency in the delivery of services. He said it always takes time to implement projects. He is intending to call for the monitoring of projects.
“As the leadership, we should also monitor projects and not only rely on the relevant ministry,” Moipisi said, adding that it took a long time to complete the Kang/Hukuntsi road and as a result it cost the government a lot of money.
Moipisi is intending to interact with the management of district tribal authorities like District Commissioners and council secretaries to find out about their manpower needs.
He is also going to advocate for economic empowerment for the people of Kgalagadi by pushing for government to prioritise local businesses when tenders are issued.
The BDP man also spoke about shortage of grazing land and water for livestock. He said the majority of land in the Kgalagadi has been allocated for Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs).
But he said sometimes when when farmers drill boreholes, they find salty water. He is going to propose that people should also be allowed to drill in WMAs if there is suitable water in those areas. Also, Moipisi is going to advocate for abandoned government boreholes to be allocated to community syndicates.
Another area that Moipisi is intending to push for is to turn Kgalagadi into a tourist centre. “We want to identify areas with a potential for tourism and develop them,” he said, adding that the salt pans can be developed into tourism attraction centres. He said the annual Inalogolo horse race that is held in the area, is another event that could be developed to boost tourism.
Moipisi said the list of issues in the constituency is endless, adding that he is going to consult with the community from time to time about their needs.
The 46-year-old Moipisi is an environmentalist, having graduated with Masters in Environmental Resources from the United Kingdom. Moipisi did his Humanities degree at the University of Botswana (UB) where he majored in Environmental Science and English.
After graduating from UB in 1992, he joined the then Ministry of Local Government and Lands, attached to the Department of Lands.
He was later deployed to then National Conservation Strategy until he went to study for his MA in 1997. He left the government to join Debswana as an environmental coordinator. He was first posted at the Orapa mine and was later transferred to Jwaneng.
It was in Jwaneng where he started his political activism. Moipisi recalled that he was attracted to BDP because of its policies.
He says he has benefitted so much from the BDP government in terms of free education. Moipisi served as an additional member for the Jwaneng/Mabutsane branch committee and later as a chairman. He retired from the mine in 2011.
Moipisi said it was because of his track record that BDP activists in Jwaneng wanted him to contest for the elections in that constituency. But he felt he could serve his people better if he could contest in Kgalagadi where he originates. For him, it is pay back time to the community that groomed him.