18 Mar 2025

Kanye District Council (KDC) started full council meetings with the delivery of the council chairperson’s speech at Tomela yesterday.

Amongst the many issues presented by the chairperson, Mr Morapedi Kgosithebe were the social benefits. He highlighted the benefits as the Old Age Pension (OAP) with 6 901 beneficiaries, 6 901 Destitute Cash Allowance (DCA), 51 World War Veterans (WW II V), while the Disability Cash Transfer (DCT) has 461 beneficiaries.

DCT programme comprises of various groups receiving P830, P550, P850 and P700. He said that payments were disbursed to beneficiaries through an agent called Sandulea Telcom. He highlighted that it was outsourced on contract on behalf of the Botswana Government.

“Contractors deliver payments to the beneficiaries’ wards or dikgotla and by the use of Point of Sales machine at some shops on monthly basis,” he said.

He stated that government was committed to increasing the number of pay points to include major shopping outlets like Shoppers and Spar shops in Kanye. He said that this would reduce congestion at Mahikana and Taukobong wards, and added that beneficiaries would be able to get their dues at their earliest convenience.

He pointed that as a way of improving the department’s service delivery, it had interlinked with the Omang office and this had assisted with automatic termination of a reported deceased beneficiary hence cleansing the payroll on time and the process enhances appropriate budget.

“In cases where the deceased is not reported at Omang office and our office, we cleanse the payroll after a period of six months,” he added, further highlighting that registration of beneficiaries was also dependent on the Omang system as it contained the legal information required.

On destitute housing, Mr Kgosithebe said the district had embarked on providing quality housing to the underprivileged persons. He stated that since 2022/2023, the district was awarded 21 houses, 19 of which are complete and handed over while four are ongoing. He said the four ongoing projects ranged from 25 per cent to 95 per cent at Mhiko, Lorolwane, Gasita and Kanye.

“Outstanding projects were delayed due to challenges of relocation and difficulty in sourcing artisans (bricklayers) residing in those respective villages,” he said.

He said the council is facilitating with direct payments for materials and intensive monitoring of projects. All the projects were anticipated to be complete by end of May. ENDS