[Botswana] Ministry records over 50 malaria cases

from African News Dimension

More than 50 cases of malaria were recorded in the traditionally malaria prone sub-districts of Tutume and Boteti between January and February this year.

This was disclosed by the Chairperson of the Central District Council, Lesego Raditanka, during a full council meeting last week.

He attributed the malaria outbreak to heavy rains that the areas received recently.

This is because stagnant waters provide fertile breeding areas for the anopheles mosquitoes that cause malaria, he said.

He said the Performance Management System (PMS) training that has been rolled out to the permanent and pensionable and the industrial class cadres would continue until October 2006.

The councillors would thereafter be taken on board.

Raditanka also acknowledged shortage of stationary that befell primary schools but said the problem was experienced countrywide.

The reasons advanced for this sorry state of affairs include late tendering by sub-districts resulting with the recommended contractors failing to supply on time.

He said some companies attributed their failure to supply stationary to the devaluation of the Pula.

This non-delivery has caught the district off guard, since no contingency measures had been put in place as and when the problem occurred.

Raditanka said tendering for the next year school calendar supplies should commence in earnest and the supplies should reach all the schools by November.

He refuted media reports about the councils failure to use US$ 4,690,550 that was allocated for maintenance.

We have been derided by the media in the past for suppressing expenditure on some of the development programmes, not least the infrastructure maintenance programme, he said.

But he informed the councillors that the council has exhausted US$ 5,253,416 that was allocated under the maintenance programme in the current financial year.

He said additional funding had to be requested from the Ministry of Local Government to cater for urgent additional works, which emerged during the year.

Such works included the outbreak of bat infestations in some primary schools and health facilities in parts of Bobirwa and Serowe/Palapye sub-districts.

Meanwhile, the full council meeting was scheduled to debate 72 motions, including that of Mmadinare North East Councillor, Oduetse Lejowa, which requests that, the council sanctions a special date on which the political leadership of CDC, councillors would publicly show good moral intervention by voluntarily testing for HIV/AIDS, in order to positively contribute to the nations quest to control the spread of the pandemic.