Africa-Press – Botswana. Minister of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Mr Ketlhalefile Motshegwa says there was need to create the necessary vacancies for councillors to fill through elections and special nominations after the October 2024 general elections.
Answering a parliamentary question from Bobirwa MP, Mr Taolo Lucas, he advised the House that Section 13 of the Local Government Act, 2012 (Cap 40.01) provided for the constitution of a council and empowered him to do so through an Order and which order should consist of the number of elected or specially nominated members.
He said the act further granted him the power by subsequent Order published in the Government Gazette to vary or amend an order previously made.
Having mentioned the legal requirement above, he said it was then necessary to exercise the authority hence the ministry undertook the process of varying the councils’ establishment orders by amending the number of elected and nominated seats for each council.
Minister Motshegwa stated that the orders had been published in the Government Gazette, Vol. LXII, No. 127, dated October 4, 2024. Consequently, he said the local authorities would be made up of 762 councillors consisting 609 elected and 153 specially nominated members.
“It is worth noting that while elected councillors grew by 119 following demarcation, nominated councillors grew by 34,” said Mr Motshegwa and added that the reasons and causes for the delay for selection of specially nominated councillors was largely due to the process stated above.
The other reason he said was that the mandate fell strictly within his authority as the minister, the process could not progress without the appointment of the minister responsible for Local Government and Traditional Affairs who also had to run through some internal processes before making the final decision.
Minister Motshegwa further revealed that it was worth noting that there was a distinction between special elected councillors and specially nominated members of council adding that it should be appreciated that in terms of councillors, they were specially nominated and not specially elected as there were no elections held except that it was only the nomination process that was done by the minister.
Letters which were written to the prospective nominees for special election to councils, he said had not been withdrawn acknowledging that the delays in nominations had an impact on the establishment and functioning of councils hence negatively affected service delivery, especially at local level.
“This is so because councils cannot function without both elected and specially nominated members. Full council is fully constituted when both members have been sworn in and taken their seats,” Minister Motshegwa explained. He said it was important to note that councils worked with different portfolio committees with delegated mandate from the full council and that some decisions could only be taken by full councils hence prolonged delays could negatively affect service delivery.
Minister Motshegwa explained that the criteria that he used to nominate special councillors included competency, special skills, gender, disability and youth among others noting that on the foregoing there were 29 females, 112 males, nine youths and three people living with disability whom had been nominated through the process.
He assured the House that the nomination process would be completed shortly once the internal processes were complete adding that councils were expected to be in full operation during this week.
MP Lucas asked the minister to apprise the House on progress made in the nomination of specially elected councillors, the reason and the causes for the delay in nominating specially elected councillors.
He inquired if it was true that letters were written to the prospective nominees for special election to councils and later withdrawn, if so state the reasons.
Mr Lucas wanted the minister to explain the impact of the delays in nominations on service delivery in the local councils as well as the criteria used in nominating specially elected councillors and in each criterion, state the number of councillors nominated.
Source: dailynews
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