BALA delighted as councillors’ pay rise
The Botswana Association of Local Authorities (BALA) President Geoffrey Sibisibi has expressed delight at the five percent pay rise for councillors effected by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to increase and upgrade some Sub-District Councils to full district councils.
The development follows an announcement by Local Government Minister Kgotla Autlwetse on Wednesday that government has approved his Ministry’s request to restructure seven councils by upgrading 15 Subordinate Authorities to fully-fledged councils and merging seven Subordinate Authorities with District Headquarters.
Similarly, the increment of councillors’ salaries was also announced. In an interview with Mmegi on Thursday, Sibisibi said they are happy that the ministry has agreed to increase councillors’ salaries by five percent. He said the talks have been ongoing for some time.
“Even though it is not enough, we are hoping that the ministry will re-look into councilors’ welfare when the economy recovers. This issue could have long been addressed but it could not be done due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” he revealed. On the issue of sub-district councils being upgraded into fully-fledged district councils, Sibisibi said it is a good move by the ministry since that is what councilors have been pleading for over the years.
He said the move would help councils to account and also help on issues of service delivery. The sub-districts that have been turned into full districts are Goodhope, Molepolole, Mogoditshane, Letlhakeng, Mahalapye, Tutume, Boteti, Maun, Okavango, Tsabong and Hukuntsi.
The other remaining sub-districts will be turned into districts next year. “People have been complaining of service delivery by councils in different villages. We hope this will help councils to plan properly depending on how big or small the council is structured. Again this shows that there will be re-alignment of some wards and constituencies.
Currently, delimitations are ongoing, realignment and additional constituencies will help the situation. Mind you, some councils have a problem with service delivery because of their broadness and the bulk of the budget normally goes to salaries while a small percentage goes to development and maintenance,” Sibisibi said.
The latest development was also welcomed by the Central District Council (CDC) chairperson Ketshwereng Galeragwe who said the move would help his council to deliver on its mandate. So far the CDC is the largest council in Botswana with 174 councillors. “I am very happy because my council has been struggling because our villages were very far and big on their own.
Three sub-districts from our council will be now full districts which include Tutume, Mahalapye and Boteti. Out of 174, we will be left with 87 councillors, which is still big.
Our people have been crying about service delivery and our budget has been so tight. We hope that now, the budget will be better and we will be able to deliver effectively. Again it will reduce fights for projects since our problems in different villages were similar and councillors were fighting for projects to start in their villages. Serowe alone is big and we were failing to service it or to give the village the attention it deserves and even other villages like Palapye.
We hope that the ministry will relook into the CDC again,” Galeragwe said. Announcing the development, Autlwetse said the exercise took cognisance of homogeneity, population size, geographical factors, the potential for growth, availability of infrastructure and resources as well as other considerations such as the size of the areas or settlements to be served and the distance from the subordinate headquarters.
“This development, which is meant to achieve administrative expediency and enhance citizen’s participation by transferring decision-making powers and resources to local governments, is aligned with government’s efforts to bring services closer to the people as espoused in the Draft Decentralization,” he said.
The minister said the necessary processes and procedures meant to facilitate the implementation of this decision have started.