Africa-Press – Botswana. There are 523 health workers in Selebi Phikwe, 97 of whom are housed in official residences.
This was revealed by Assistant Minister of Health, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe in Parliament.
He said the ministry had 70 institutional houses for its employees as well as 20 pool houses.
Mr Lelatisitswe told the house that there were no married officers sharing accommodation in the town, adding that 426 officers were housed in the private market through private housing.
With respect to BCL houses, he said the ministry had expressed interest to purchase the laboratories and houses from the company, and consultations on that were ongoing.
He said due to the acute shortage of housing units in Selebi Phikwe, the ministry had purchased seven housing units from Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) at the cost of P1.3 million and six units in Jwaneng at P6.1 million as well as 22 houses in Shakawe at P6.2 million in 2022.
He also said the ministry was in discussions with BHC on some of their properties around hospitals, especially in Gaborone. Mr Lelatisitswe further said the ministry was in the process of purchasing four housing units in Mohembo.
However, he said the unavailability of funds was often a limiting factor in efforts to source houses from the private market.
Selebi Phikwe West MP, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse had asked the minister to give the number of health workers versus the number of official houses in Selebi Phikwe as well as to state the number of workers housed in official houses.
He also wanted to know the number of those who lived in shared accommodation, including the number of married workers living in shared accommodation.
Mr Keorapetse had further sought to know whether the ministry had submitted a bid to buy BCL houses or had any arrangement in place to acquire BCL houses or any set of houses for the Ministry of Health staff.
The minister was also asked to state how much was set aside for the purchases.
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