Africa-Press – Botswana. The Lobatse Cultural change programme dubbed Youth Inclusiveness in Cultural Heritage is aimed at raising knowledge and awareness about Lobatse heritage sites and their potential to contribute to local economy.
Lobatse Town Clerk, Ms Lenamile Taolo said this during a Sweden, Bollnas Municipality delegation courtesy call to the Minister of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Mr Ketlalefile Motshegwa on Thursday.
Ms Taolo said the objective of the project was to enhance local governance targeting youth by economically empowering them through local heritage sites in the town. She said cultural heritage was one of the key focus areas in the Lobatse Town Council Mayor’s roadmap to place Lobatse as a destination of cultural heritage. Therefore, she said Lobatse was better placed to advance issues of cultural heritage and diversify the tourism sector as it was more concentrated in flora and fauna tourism.
She said Lobatse Town Council and the Bollnas Municipality have been working together since 2022.
“We have made a significant achievement from 2022. So far there has been an immense exchange of knowledge and skills in running of community cultural heritage project. We had earmarked to train 20 tour guides but only eight graduated. They were mainly youth from Lobatse,” she said.
Minister of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Mr Ketlhalefile Motshegwa said the ministry was reviewing legislation to give prominence to traditional leadership, elevating them on issue of culture as it was part of heritage and human rights.
“By virtue of their proximity to the people, they are in a better position to offer quality services to the people. Our motto for the Ministry is Batho Pele, meaning people first,” he said.
He said they were also pioneering community-led development anchored on rural industrialisation to curb rural-urban migration in order to generate village economies.
Mr Motshegwa said he had also engaged local authorities to come up with a model template or prototype of what constituted an impactful and high performance local authority.
For his part, the head of the delegation, Ms Helen Berggren said they had partnered with Lobatse Town Council to learn more on cultural heritage.
She further said they wanted to strengthen capacity of the council to collaborate with the community in a more efficient way.
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