Shashe West voters rue dearth of developments despite voting BDP
Pini Bothoko | Friday November 1, 2019 12:35
The constituency has a population size of 37, 032 from the 11 villages that make up its nine wards. The voters decry prolonged acute water shortage, poor roads and developmental structures like schools, hospitals and police stations to mention but a few.
However, the Vote for Masisi message worked positively for the party. The voters were murmuring amongst themselves that they have faith in the President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s promises to Batswana, hence the decision to give him the five-year mandate so that he can prove himself.
Despite being located in the vicinity of Ntibale and Shashe Dams, villages in this constituency face severe water shortages that have lasted for decades.
The situation has become so dire that residents in most of the villages in the constituency go for months without a drop of water in their standpipes.
The current water supply within most of the villages is inadequate to meet normal water demand and it is believed to have resulted in prolonged water shortages forcing some of the residents to use unsafe water from stream for human consumption.
One voter, Ace Kelekwang said the unavailability of a senior school in their constituency is forcing them as parents to part ways with their children for boarding schools as far as Mmadinare and Tonota village.
He also pointed out that the constituency needs to have its own primary hospital and a police station as they await the long promised police station to be constructed at Marapong village.
Kelekwang stated that residents are forced to travel long distances to other constituencies to get services and accused the ruling party of failing to improve their lives as promised.
He provision of such developments could go a long way in developing people’s lives, create job opportunities and uplift the face of the constituency
Other voters said they are putting their last hope on the President Masisi who has promised change hoping that things would turn a corner for the better.
Yet another voter, Godfrey Sesinyi of Jamataka village who appeared fed up with the queue on the general elections day dismissed the importance of voting in view of high unemployment in the area and the fact that the village remains under-developed.
Responding to concerns of the electorate concerns the area Member of Parliament (MP) Fidelis Molao conceded that his constituency is faced with a number of challenges that that make people unhappy. These are acute shortage of water, bad roads to mention but a few.
He however said the government is aware of such challenges and it is working hard to address the problems, with a number of them to be tackled under NDP 11. He said the only thing that has not been accommodated in the plan is the building of a senior secondary school.
Molao also said another concern is of poor road conditions in a number of villages in his constituency but he has been transparent in talking about the challenges facing the constituency to electorate.
However, he said he was happy that the tender for Borolong/Chadibe water works construction has been awarded and shortage of water in those villages will soon be a thing of the past.
Further, Molao said the long-awaited tender for Mandunyane-Mathangwane road has been released, saying that it would benefit a number of villages in the constituency.