Africa-Press – Botswana. Concerned residents have made their intentions clear, demanding the immediate exit of the Palapye Development Trust Committee (PDTC). They want the board to vacate office right away and hand over power to a new, yet-to-be-elected interim board.
Following months of bickering and an exchange of explosive letters, tensions reached a boiling point in a heated kgotla meeting this week, when a motion of no confidence was passed on the Ikageng Ngwako-led board.
The community decided to dissolve the board, with the final straw occurring on April 24th when board members snubbed a meeting where they were scheduled to present a detailed financial report.
“The PDTC board was given three weeks by the community to compile and deliver a report to the community today, but they failed,” noted an outspoken member of the concerned group, Stewart Tainton.
“Remember a fortnight ago, a motion of no confidence was passed against the board, which was supported and later suspended. The trust was given two weeks to prepare and report back but requested an extra week, which was granted, giving them three weeks,” said Tainton. “They’ve now reneged on this agreement, so we had no choice but to remove them!” he declared.
Tainton stated that the community had requested a report on the properties and assets of the trust, audited financials, and also wanted to know why the board was failing to report back to them.
“We want to know where donations to House of Hope that come from chain stores go, since it has been closed,” he added.
He further mentioned that one of the resolutions was for the ex-officio members to write an apology to the community for their failure to invest their time in the Community Trust issues.
The concerned members of the Palapye community accuse the board of mismanagement, corruption, and irregularities, which they believe have crippled the once-thriving trust.
In a previous interview, Chairperson Ngwako told The Voice that while they agreed to give a report on the 24th, there wouldn’t be much substance to it. He explained that an internal report would not reveal much, as it is not carried out by experts.
“It’s an internal audit, but if you really want to do a thorough job, you need external auditors, so that when you accuse the board of corruption, you have all the details from a report prepared by experts,” said Ngwako, whose board was elected in June 2023.
For the changing of the guard to be complete, the District Commissioner will now convene a meeting where the community must reaffirm their position of no confidence and then elect an interim committee.
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