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BOPA News on 21 May 2001

However, of the hospitals say they are able to handle most cases through visiting specialists. Shaun Ryan, the manager of GPH, said in an interview with BOPA that his hospital has neither a cardiologist nor a neurosurgeon. A cardiologist treats heart diseases while a neurosurgeon specialises in head and spinal cord injuries.

Ryan said the hospital also does not have an ophthalmologist for treating the eyes; it does not have a maxillionfa, an expert for jaws and faces; it does not have a dermatologist ‹ for skin disorders ‹ but hopes to hire one soon.

He said, however, that the hospital has all other specialists. He explained that the hospital must buy equipment known as catheteriza before it could employ a cardiologist. However, with the catheteriza costing P10 million ‹ and with few patients to treat ‹ the hospital found it better to refer patients to South Africa.

He told BOPA that the GPH is an affiliate of Afrox Health Care, an association of 40 hospitals in South Africa. Some of these hospitals receive patients from the GPH for specialist treatment. He explained, however, that local specialists would attempt to stabilise the patient's condition before deciding on a referral.

Ryan also said the GPH shares a cancer treatment centre with Princess Marina Hospital (PMH). He described the centre as a joint venture involving his hospital, the Ministry of Health and the Cancer Association of Botswana.

The venture enables Botswana to treat cancer patients locally. Dr Patson Mazonde, the director of Health Services, said PMH and Nyangabgwe Referral Hospitals can handle head injuries.

"Injuries resulting in conditions requiring replacement treatment such as total hip or knee replacement are the ones referred to South Africa" Mazonde said.

He explained that reasons for referrals are multi-faceted.

The reasons include lack of trained manpower such as supportive staff, and lack of equipment because it may not be cost effective to keep it in stock when one considers the frequency of occurrence of some to these injuries.

He said government referral hospitals do not have equipment for neuorosurgical procedures such as removal of brain tumours and spinal cord injuries; they also do not have equipment for hip and knee replacement, he said.

Mazonde explained that as general rule, government does not have an arrangement with Gaborone Private Hospital for loaning of equipment.

"It is only on emergency situations that drugs or some life-saving equipment may be loaned to either of the facilities," he said. "This option should be kept open all the time as a life-saving measure.

He said, however, that the GPH loaned some ward equipment to PMH for the new oncology ward. The equipment will be returned as soon as government buys it own.

BOKA public relations officer Tebogo Ngope said in a statement that the championships were held every two years, the first having been in Windhoek, Namibia, in 1999.

The tournament would be preceded by a news conference on Friday at the National Stadium after which there would be a course for table managers and referees to be run by the World Karate Federation chief referee.

Six countries have confirmed participation. These are South Africa, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and hosts Botswana.

Ngope said the tournament would be graced by the presence of the president of the Union of African Karate Federation (UFAK), Imtiaz Abdulla of South Africa, UFAK secretary general Leon Beech (South Africa), Zone Six president Andre Genis of Namibia and the WFK chief referee from France.

The tournament will start at 9:00am and entrance fee will be P5.

BPC's Public Relations Officer Thomamiso Selato said in an interview with BOPA that the debt Eskom claimed to have been owed by BPC was settled earlier on March 15. The BPC, she says, always pay Eskom in time, adding that the next power charge was R8.5 million and was paid on April 19.

Selato said the BPC was proud that it never defaulted on its payments for power imports. According to reports of the South African news media, the BPC is one of the seven external purchasers which owed Eskom millions of money by end of March, this year.

South Africa's public enterprises minister Jeff Radebe was qouted by The Citizen newspaper of May 15, this year as saying that the BPC owed Eskom R8.3 million and the payment was overdue by end of March.

The newspaper said other debtors were power utilities in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Swaziland , Mozambique and Lesotho. All outstanding payment amounted to more than R105 million.

"Government came up with different development programmes like SMME and FAP in an attempt to get Batswana into business and improve their lives but all these have failed to yield desired results," the MP told residents of Setsile and Mokoswana in the Mahalapye constituency in kgotla meetings last week.

To address this problem, the MP, who is also the Minister for Foreign Affairs, said government had introduced Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA).

The agency would become effective from July 31, replacing the Small Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME) and Financial Assistance Policy (FAP) which, he said, had failed to tick. Meanwhile, the two policies would continue operating until the day CEDA takes over from them.

With CEDA, loans up to P150 000 would be at five per cent interest while medium scale loans would range from P151 000 to P2 million at seven and a half per cent interest.

General Merafhe further said ALDEP was being reviewed because it had also failed to tick, adding that only those applicants who had paid the required deposits would have their applications considered while those who had not, would have to await the outcome of the review.

On other issues, the MP urged residents of the two villages to participate in the coming national referendum seeking to, among other things, increase the retiring age of judges from 65 to 70.

He also briefed them on the August 17-26 population census. He said it was imperative for them to be counted because the resultant statistical data would guide government in its development plans.

Merafhe also urged residents to desist from selling land to foreigners, saying doing so was a recipe for conflicts in the future as it was the case in some countries.

"When your grand children come and realise that there is no land for them while foreigners occupy land, they may decide to demand their share of the land and this may brew conflicts. So this tendency of selling land must stop," he said.

The minister also urged residents to take stock to avoid HIV/AIDS infection.

He said time was ripe for parents to break the taboo line and start talking openly to their children about their sexual relations if the scourge was to be overcome.

For their part, residents of Setsile requested that their settlement be granted village status as it had attained the required population to be recognised as a village.

Council chairman Kgotla Autlwetse said this when addressing kgotla meetings at Malatswai, Mmashoro and Topisi last week.

Autlwetse said Malatswai would get three LA2 houses, a class room block, Mmashoro Primary will get a two-classroom block while Topisi would get two LA2 houses and a classroom block.

He further said remote area dwellers hostels, costing P3 million each, would be built at Otse, Mokgenene, Sehunong, Nata and Khwee.

The council chairman emphasised that the council was still faced with a backlog of projects that included teachers' quarters, classrooms and RADs' hostels.

Autlwetse said the backlog would not be cleared quickly because the council was now catering for 5 985 orphans whose food and clothing that cost the CDC P1,5 million a month.

He also told the meeting that the council had earmarked P296 000 for purchasing of livestock for the RADs. Commenting on the chairman's address, residents of Malatswai welcomed the developments, but raised a concern over RADs children who still abscond from school in large numbers of up to 40 per year, despite the hospitality they were given by the council.

They also appealed to the council chairman to persuade the water unit to speed up the equipping of the two boreholes for watering their livestock.

Malatswai residents also raised concern aboutnoise emanating from gumba-gumba parties in their village.

At Mmashoro, residents expressed dissatisfaction with the poor communication and consultation between them and the council.

They wanted to know when the council would start paying school cooks as the parent-teachers association was failing.

At Topisi, residents welcomed the development but raised a concern that the budget allocated to CDC was inadequate, urging the government to realise that the Central District was the largest council area.

They also lamented the short notice issued for meetings called by the Serowe/Palapye Sub-district.

Topisi residents also reminded the council building unit to make regular inspection of classrooms and teachers' houses allocated to companies to avoid unnecessary waste of funds.

Chief hydrologist, Edson Selaolo said that the tremor was recorded by instruments located at Magotlhwane, west of Otse. Selaolo said the department's geophysicists were still working on the data recorded to determine the magnitude of the tremor and its epicenter.

He said preliminary indications were that the tremor originated as close as less than 100km from Magotlhwane.

The department has received reports from people who felt the tremor from Lobatse and Gaborone.

Selaolo said more details about the event would be released as information from at least two more stations was needed to compute source location of the tremor.

BOPA also received some calls from around Gaborone from some people enquiring about what felt like a slight tremor which lasted for a few seconds and which caused some buildings to shake.

Officiating at a four-day workshop on marketing, fund-raising and sustainability workshop in Gaborone last week, Phorano said people often engaged in fund-raising without really understanding what it entails.

Phorano cited principles such as clear mission and vision, following management rules, planning and researching and securing the understanding of stakeholders, saying these might help if adhered to.

He said one of the biggest challenges of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) was the capacity to access and attract adequate resources to carry out their work both in the short and long terms.

"We should take cognisance of the fact that fund-raising poses great challenges to the sustainability of NGO intervention," he said.

Fund-raising and resource mobilisation are a major preoccupation among NGOs and as demonstrated by the high interest and their level of participation and involvement in a variety of events.

The workshop aims at providing participants with skills and knowledge that would enable them to prepare good project proposals as well as to understand issues relating to NGO sustainability and marketing.

"If on further analysis it is found that privatisation is more cost effective then we shall recommend it as a way forward," he said. Mazonde said government hospitals do not currently employ paramedics.

Ambulances normally have a health worker, usually a nurse, when they go to collect a serious patient.

He said hospitals must respond immediately to an emergency call although this is determined by the availability of transport and the distance of the patient.

He explained that in case of a mass accident, each hospital has procedures on how it should respond and its personnel would be expected to be at the scene of the accident within the shortest time possible.

He added that where patients are brought to the facility they should be assessed within the first 15 ­ 30 minutes after which they may be seen by a doctor depending on the condition of the patient.

Answering the same questions, Permanent Secretary Mathias Chakalisa of the Ministry of Health said hospital services have 37 ambulances with Princess Marina Hospital alone having 19.

Chakalisa said response time to emergency calls is 12 minutes if there is no disturbance.

When the streets are busy and the drivers on the road are not responding and giving way, the response time is 20 minutes.

Officiating at the commemoration of the World Telecommunication Day in Gaborone, Magang said though the Internet market is fully liberalised in Botswana, most of the users are currently corporate institutions and government organisations.

The Internet penetration is low both in urban and rural areas, and it should be the stakeholders, including the government, which should promote the use of Internet more in rural areas," Magang said.

This year's theme is "Internet: Prospects, Challenges and Opportunities."

Magang said another major challenge to Internet access in Botswana is the high cost, which includes subscription charges, connection fees and telephone charges for dial-up access.

He said a preliminary estimate indicates that to date, Botswana has 30 000 Internet users compared to 10 000 in 1999. And currently there are nine licensed Internet service providers and six licensed data gateway service providers.

"The Internet, due to its peculiar technological and economic features, is an efficient digital technology that can deliver data, text, images and video at low cost to the health sector and bring new hope to developing nations," he explained.

He added that telemedicine could enable a radiologist in Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone to interpret an x-ray taken at Ghanzi Primary Hospital and provide the doctors there with a diagnosis without the x-ray being sent to Gaborone.

On distance education, Magang said the Internet allows an increase in the number of educated people, with positive effects on the overall national economy and reduction of infrastructure costs. It enhances the possibility for developing and emerging economies to participate in electronic commerce.

"If Botswana was to maintain its reputation of being one of the fastest growing economies in the world, it has to also be judged by its provision of essential facilities like the Internet," he said.

Making submissions to the Local Government Structure Commission at Gaborone's Boipuso Hall, he said village development committees (VDCs) must be enhanced and Land Boards realigned if they were to become more accountable.

In addition, Moruakgomo told the commission that land boards should become a department and sub-committee of the local councils led by an elected councillor.

"It is our belief that we should also move towards a situation whereby central government is more concerned with policy issues, national aggregate planning, monitoring and evaluation," said Moruakgomo.

He further said the office of the district commissioner needed to be realigned to deal with the current realities, adding that its functions must be consolidated under the council.

He also said objective planning could only be achieved if the central government decentralised its power to the local authorities, especially the council.

" Too much centralisation has led to the current chronic dependency syndrome, which is even evident in young people. Local people have been reduced to consumers of policies and planning emanating from Gaborone," he said.

He attributed non-implementation of government policies to centralisation.

Tsheboeng was addressing a Kweneng District Development Committee meeting in Molepolole last week.

She said that it was important to address the DDC members on the issue because the highest degree of integrity was expected of them as public servants.

She said there may be laws to deal with those who engaged in corrupt practices, "but this alone is not enough".

Tsheboeng said there had to be much soul searching and commitment by civil servants, politicians and members of the public as well.

"If left unchecked, corruption will reverse the social, political and economic gains the country has made so far," she said.

She however said that the fight against corruption was not easy as it "calls for a change of mindset" because one had to distinguish between a bribe and a gift.

In a traditional setting, a good job was rewarded with a present, but public officers were paid by the state for their work.

Tsheboeng said DCEC wanted public officers to say "thank you" and not receive any gift offered in the course of their duties.

She said she was aware that where rewards were low, some officers were tempted to supplement their earnings through dubious means, stressing that "government revenue and state assets should not be used as an excuse for corrupt practices".

Some speakers at the meeting asked whether it was in order to receive gifts during official conferences and workshops from companies advertising themselves.

Tsheboeng said such gifts "can be accepted but must be always shown to some senior officials".

Addressing a kgotla meeting at Herero Ward in his Mahalapye constituency, Merafhe said he had declined to stand for the organisation's post of secretary general even though several foreign ministers approved him and pledged their support should he stand.

"I have told them that I am still committed to serving people in my constituency as their MP," he said. "I have even heard that some politicians have been going behind my back in this constituency asking you to vote for them as I am taking up the organisation's top post but I am not going anywhere."

Merafhe later told BOPA in an interview that southern Africa as region has endorsed Namibian foreign minister as its candidate for the election that is scheduled for July this year. He said the post has already attracted five candidates.

During his Herero Ward kgotla meeting, Merafhe called on his constituents to keep their environment clean and said he was not happy about what he called the appalling state of the Mahalapye shopping centre.

"Our mall is not a pretty sight," he said. "There are no proper designated stalls for people to sell their agricultural produce and this can not be tolerated for any reason."

On the introduction of Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency, Merafhe said it came about after government realised that other schemes that were introduced before had failed to improve the lives of Batswana.

He called upon them to use the new programme which he said was coming in July. The minister also called upon residents to heed the advice of health workers on how to avoid HIV.

Construction of the 367km pipeline started in May 1996 and due to some problems its commissioning was delayed.

Coordinator of the project, Balisi Khupe last week said that some villages along the NSCWP pipeline, as well as Gaborone were already benefiting from the water from Letsibogo Dam.

Khupe said the pipeline started working at the beginning of this year, noting that the leakage on it was due to some slip offs of gaskets experienced at some joints.

"The leakages are just an operational issue that is occasional and we continue to fix them whenever they occur," he said and dismissed suggestions that they were due to pipes bursting.

He also confirmed that the cost of the project had increased from the original estimate of P1.2 billion to about P1.5 billion.

Finance and Development Planning minister Baledzi Gaolathe told Parliament during the last budget session that the delays experienced during the execution of the project, as well as the increased cost of the overall implementation placed a heavy financial burden on Water Utilities Corporation (WUC).

Gaolathe said therefore WUC had to borrow additional funds to meet its contractual commitments in respect of the various contractors and financiers.

He said the project had been delayed after it experienced some difficulties such as repeated failures of the pipeline and pump stations' equipment, delaying the commissioning of the project.

The college was closed on March 30 after a riot during which students went on the rampage, destroying school property.

According to an agreement signed between the association and parents, the penalty for any student found guilty of destroying school property is expulsion.

But PTA officials informed Tswapong North MP Thebe Mogami that they were shocked at the turn of events because parents now wanted the students reinstated.

MP Mogami was told during a kgotla meeting at Ratholo on Tuesday that the parents were pleading with government to pardon their children. . Parents feared that if the banned students were not recalled they would face serious unemployment, which would turn them into "bobashi".

According to the PTA chairperson Emmanuel Mafoko, 32 students are likely to be charged for destroying school property.

During the meeting, a heated debate erupted between the two parties, with the PTA blaming parents for inconsistency. Justifying their stance, the PTA said they had been called by the head Bareedi Mogano so they could see the "dangerous items" students used to torture others and smash school property.

They said that the students used, among other objects, towels to suffocate their victims.

The two clubs had played their last games against Paper Club under protests, complaining about some irregularities and violation of the rules of the game by the club.

Police complained against pitcher Tony Moyo, questioning the legality of his pitches, while BDF IX claimed that the player was ineligible because he was registered with a South African team.

In an interview with BOPA on Saturday, Police IX and BDF IX coaches said they could not go ahead with their protests because the period for lodging them with the appeals committee had elapsed.

Both James Gunda of Police IX and Tizor Mangope of BDF IX told BOPA that protests should have been lodged within four days after the games.

Gunda said it would have been foolhardy to pursue the cases when it was obvious the committee would not entertain them.

However, Paper Club manager Kumbulani Palalani said the two coaches were lying when they said they decided to withdraw their protests because time was not on their side.

Palalani argued that it was not the first time that the two clubs had decided to lodge protests against some clubs because they had done that in the past and succeeded.

In addition, he said the protests against his club would not have been procedural because as the club manager and his coach, they had not received any protest letters from the two clubs.

Palalani said if BDF IX were genuine about their protest, they could have taken advantage of the Saturday game against Paper Club because the player they had been complaining about had been fielded.

Paper Club's pitchers, Moyo and Dan Tlale, have this season been at the centre of controversy for what other clubs consider to be illegal pitches.

The bone of contention has been that instead of Moyo and Tlale's pivotal feet remaining in contact with the pitcher's plate or when dragged making solid movements they made some crow hops during pitch-off.

On the other hand Paper Club players have always contended that their style was a new way of pitching that had been adopted globally and wondered why the duo continued to be called for national duty if they were incompetent.

In an interview at Parliament buildings last week, BNF chief whip and Lobatse MP Nehemiah Modubule said although attendance by BNF MPs was satisfactory the party had problems with its president Kenneth Koma "because of his poor state of health, which makes him leave Parliament at 4 p.m.".

"The Koma issue is not easy to address because of his health, but if there is serious business requiring him we request him to stay."

Asked if what they advised him to retire so that those who are fit enough could take over, Modubule said because of the current system of winner-takes-all, "if he retires then a bye- election will have to be called".

"And because one is never sure of the outcome of elections it is a risky option," Modubule said. "If it were in a proportional representation set-up, it would be easy to replace him without having to hold elections," he said.

Another MP, who is not attending satisfactorily, is Michael Mzwinila of Gaborone North who Modubule said had problems particularly on Fridays because he has to attend to his businesses in Botswana and South Africa.

"We advised Mzwinila that whether it is Friday or Monday he must be in Parliament as a people's representative. His behaviour should be corrected," he said.

For his part, BDP chief whip and Kgalagadi MP Lesedi Mothibamele said all MPs, including president and vice president were expected to be in Parliament until 7 p.m.

"If they are not in attendance I assume until the contrary is proven that they were attending other official engagements," he said.

Mothibamele said Standing Orders requires that a third of MPs be present for business to proceed, adding that as whips they had an obligation to see to it that there are enough MPs to form a quorum in the National Assembly.

They said it was government policy for civil servants to retire at the age of 60 and wondered "why there should be a group of people retiring at the age of 70".

Residents were commenting on their MP David Magang's kgotla meeting address that a national referendum would be held in October this year aimed at amending the constitution.

He said some of the amendments would include the increase in the retirement age for High Court judges from 65 to 70 years, members of the judiciary advisory committee from three to six years and whether the Industrial Court should be given powers equal to those of the High Court.

Those who commented on the issue at Boatlaname, Lephepe, Lentsweletau, Kopong and Gakuto said they were totally opposed to the increase in the retirement age of judges.

They said government had said that when a person reached 60 years, he/she was old and unproductive and should retire from public service.

They said they wondered why a 70-year-old judge was expected to be more productive than the younger one.

In response, Magang, who is the Minister of Works, Transport and Communications, said in some countries judges retired at ages 70-75 because of their law expertise.

He said it had been realised that at 70, High Court judges were experienced and had excelled at solving complicated criminal cases. He said high court judges had to be "mature people who are knowledgeable at law and can handle criminal cases".

He said there were different age categories of civil servants, giving an example of soldiers at the rank of private who retire at the age of 45 because they could no longer afford tough exercises.

On other issues, residents of Boatlaname, Shadishadi, Sojwe and Lephepe thanked government for the completion of the Molepolole/Lephepe road, saying it will bring development to their villages.

In all the meetings, Magang addressed in his constituency, people called for the re-introduction of the Drought Relief Programme, saying this year's crop season had flopped because of poor rainfall.

At Lephepe, residents told their MP that they had built a livestock advisory centre office through drought relief in an effort to bring services nearer to farmers but the Animal Health and Production Department had remained indifferent.

They also said they had long applied for an unused borehole for their nursery but the council had not replied to their enquiries.

On the drought relief programme, Magang said the Inter-ministerial Drought Assessment Committee had submitted its report to government and that the President would at an appropriate time address the nation on the issue.

At Kopong, senior chief representative Michael Molefe expressed disappointment at the failure by some residents to attend the MP's kgotla meeting, saying he would take action against agitators.

Speaking during the launch ceremony in Gaborone, Government Statistician Guest Charumbira said his department was gearing up its publicity following the conclusion of the pilot exercise, adding that St Louis, Coca-Cola and Chibuku are very popular in Botswana.

"You will agree with me that alcohol is the most popular beverage.

Everywhere you go you will find a carton of Chibuku which was accessible to the low income groups," he said.

Charumbira said Coca-Cola is also popular, citing a movie called "The Gods Must be Crazy" a bottle of Coca-Cola caused a lot of problems for a Basarwa community around Tsodilo Hills where it was shot about a decade ago.

He said if Coca-Cola reached such places long time ago there was no reason why it could not now.

Charumbira commended politicians and Mabijo cartoon strips for publicising the census, adding that the move by KBL and BBL will complement such efforts.

He said the reason they use all avenues to publicise the census was because it affected all people and sectors.

He cited a situation where in the 1991 census Molepolole was indicated as having more people than Serowe and the census office was criticised for that even by people one never thought would be concerned about census data.

He said after many years they would be asking questions about language spoken which was a very sensitive area and as such people must provide accurate answers.

For his part KBL Group Managing Director Richard Rushton said his company was eager to play a role in a project of national importance and that the method they had chosen to popularise the exercise was appropriate.

"We are very proud of the visual impact of the logo," he said.

Rushton said the census publicity materials demonstrated a good example of government/private sector partnerships for the good of society.

He said the census data was necessary for business planning.

However, the census publicity materials were not easily recognisable to most people who were shown the samples.

They felt that like during World Cup games the logo should have been more pronounced.

When asked about that Charumbira said although it was not easy to identify the logos in Coca Cola and St Louis his department was happy about the whole thing because it was done for free and it was the first time they used such an approach for publicity.

"In Coca-Cola and St Louis KBL had a problem in finding space for the logo," he said. Charumbira said his office only paid for the design of the logo, which is less than P1 000.

He said the Chibuku logo is more visible and even has dates when the census will be carried out.

Kamau was speaking during a certificate presentation ceremony for seven Nkaikela Youth Group members who have just completed a two-month home economics course at the Gaborone Girl Guides Centre.

He said the UNDP was concerned about the increasing number of youth dying of AIDS related diseases and as such was committed to assisting school youth-targeted projects geared at reducing the spread of the disease countrywide.

He observed that groups, such as Nkaikela of Tlokweng, on the outskirts of Gaborone city, were doing a commendable job in diverting the attention of the youth from anti-social activities such as commercial sex, to conventional means of survival.

He said it was only through full-time commitment, concerted efforts and ability to appreciate that they had the potential to "overcome social problems that the youth in Botswana can succeed in solving problems such as poverty, unemployment, disease and crime".

At least 5000 US dollars had been used to facilitate the Nkaikela youth group.

Kamau noted that at least 30 000 US dollars was available, part of which would be used to assist the group to establish an income generating project related to their food processing and kitchen hygiene course.

" At present, a caravan has been purchased to facilitate the intended project," Kamau said.

Explaining the objectives of the training, chairman of the South East District AIDS Multi-Sectoral Committee Molotsi Sekgoma said practical training in cookery and nutrition accorded the Nkaikela group had, among other things, equipped the youth with skills and knowledge of running small business enterprises through legitimate means.

He said the training had also enabled them to be self-reliant and reduce their burden on the society.

Sekgoma encouraged the group to become role models to their colleagues still engaged in anti­social and self-destructive activities so that they could change their habits and reduce the possibility of contracting STDs and HIV/AIDS.

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