Councillors vow to reject 'shallow' action sheet responses

Patricia Edwin
Staff Writer | Thursday August 29, 2013 00:00

 

Councillors made their feelings known at the on-going full council meeting here in response to the action sheet that was read to them.They basically said they were dissatisfied by the responses and they said showed that there was no time taken to address the councillors' motions.In the past, Francistown councillors have rejected the action sheet and demanded that satisfactory responses that indicated progress be given.Now, they are complaining that they are not being taken seriously and that responses to their motions are shallow.

Councillor Tabengwa Tabengwa of Ikageleng Ward proposed that at the next full council meeting, they should not accept shallow responses that are given in the action sheet.'You can simply tell that there was no effort that has been put in this. People (officers) start running around when they know that the full council is near and they write 'on-going or awaiting response'.'Councillors, let us agree that in the next full council we will not accept such responses,' he said.

Nominated councillor Ford Moiteela said that he was irritated by the responses such as 'on-going and awaiting response' because they have become monotonous.'Those responses will no longer be acceptable because in the next full council meeting we will not adopt an action sheet with such responses,' he said.Councillor Robert Mosweu of Boikhutso Ward shared the sentiment saying that he was calling upon councillors to agree that in the next full council meeting they would not carry an action sheet with responses such as 'on-going and awaiting response' because it is not true.

He said that officers were taking councillors for granted.'Apparently they even call councillors tourists because they know that in five years some councillors will not be coming back but it is not fair because the people who have voted for us end up thinking that we have failed,' he stated.He said that when something is said to be 'on-going' they want to see the progress because the electorate look to councillors for progress being made because they do not understand that councillors are not the implementers.'At this point, we are being assessed because our voters want to see what we have done since 2009 but according to these action sheets it turns out we have done nothing.'To the electorate it seemed like we have failed them,' he said.

He said as councillors they end up becoming desperate, without a way forward.Councillor Kays Phitshana of Botsalano Ward said people in the wards think that councillors are doing nothing.'We are coming up with motions and ideas to develop their lives and this city but we can only go so far because at the end of the day we are not the implementers,' he added.He said most of the responses written in the action sheet are not true.The councillor for Monarch South, Ignatius Moswaane, said some motions from as early 2010 have disappeared and have never been implemented.

'A lot of motions have died a natural death. We do not know what happened to those motions and now we have to go back and move them as new motions. We do not know,' he said.He said at one-point councillors proposed that they should be a catalogue of motions.'We have long proposed that there should be a catalogue of motions where all the motions should be written down and where we can always go back and refer to those motions.'Really, having motions in the action sheet is okay but having a catalogue is much better,' he said.Councillors have since agreed that at the next full council meeting they would not accept the action sheet if it contains responses such as 'on-going and awaiting response' from the ministry and so forth.