JTC resurrect twinning programme
Lebogang Baingapi | Tuesday September 5, 2017 15:05
In the last sitting, under the leadership of the former mayor Tsietsi Oodira-Kwenje, councillors agreed that efforts to contact their friends in the sister city had failed dismally.
Chaos nearly erupted when councillors called on the then mayor and council management to account for the wasted money spent on the failed twinning relationship. The Council had spent P570,000 in the programme, which included a bench marking trip to USA and hosting their delegation from the city in Botswana.
The Jwaneng council signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2014 through the then mayor, Amos Jahana and his counterpart from Peoria, Jim Ardis, to formalise their partnership but the relationship went cold.
The council authorities under the then mayor, Oodira-Kwenje made countless calls in an effort to contact their friends on the agreement but no sound response was recorded.
Monkge told a full council meeting on Thursday that one of his immediate goals after assuming office in May this year is to revive the sister city commission, which is critical for the efficient management of partnerships. He said the committee is currently fully functional and working on reviving the interest that was previously generated with some organisations.
“As a result, Jwaneng has been able to reignite communication with the City of Peoria. Currently the sister City Commission is working on carrying out the efforts made by MoU, which was signed by the leadership of the two organisations to agree on the proposed areas of cooperation. We will also agree on the proposed areas of cooperation which will lead to the memorandum of agreement (MoA) and set in motion programs that will enhance service delivery,” Monkge said.
He further noted that a local assessment is also being carried out to profile Jwaneng and strengthen its leverage to attract strategic partners of international repute. Monkge called on fellow councillors to assure their full support to the twinning programme.
Councillor Bankinyana Montsiemang of Ngami ward said public funds have previously been wasted in a relationship that has not benefited JTC anyhow. He called on the new mayor to hasten resuming sound communication between the two entities to ensure efficiency.
“I still believe that little research was done before a delegation of staff and councillors were sent to the USA for bench marking. This should be an awakening call for the house to be careful and account for public funds,” he said.
Nominated councillor, Benjamin Bakwena said he was looking forward to the new face of twinning after the previous call failed. He called on the new committee to work together to ensure sound delivery of the programme.