Africa-Press – Botswana. Teenage pregnancies and other social ills that continue to rise in the country require efforts of all stakeholders.
Principal district officer-development, Ms Omphile Mogorosi said this when addressing the North East District Council full council meeting recently.
Ms Mogorosi told the council meeting that North East District had, from April to June this year, registered 38 teenage pregnancies, which included a girl below the age of 15 years.
She said Tati Siding had registered 11 cases, Ramokgwebana and Matshelagabedi four each, Tshesebe, Mapoka, Ditladi, Tsamaya, Masunga and Gulubane recorded two each while Mowana, Matsiloje, Jackalas 1, Senyawe, Siviya and Makaleng each recorded one.
She added that they were not only concerned about the escalating teenage pregnancy cases but also rape and defilement.
She indicated that 31 rape cases were recorded in the district while 76 cases of defilement were pending as at end of July.
Again, she said they continued to realise incidents of drug abuse in the district which contributed to high cases of mental illness in school children and out of school going youth.
“During police raids, new drugs were discovered and this has shown some deterioration in health of the youth at a high rate,” she said.
On other issues, particularly on shortage of land, Ms Mogorosi told the council meeting that the district was surrounded by private farms and therefore there was no room for expansion for residential, commercial and industrial plot allocations.
She said freehold farms covered an area of 42.9 per cent, state land occupied 0.5 per cent while tribal land occupied 56.6 per cent of the total land of the district’s 5 993 square kilometres.
However, she said the available land had streams, gullies and dongas in almost all of the villages which made such land unsuitable for allocation.
On agriculture, she said the district comprised mostly subsistent farmers who normally did not utilise all the allocated space in their ploughing fields and that resulted in low agricultural production or poor quality breeds.
“The district has poor breeds of small stock and livestock. Farmers lack start-up capital to improve their breeds while others lack knowledge on how to improve their breeds,” she added.
Further, she told the meeting that from January, the district experienced a high number in motor vehicle theft where 11 were stolen in May and only four were recovered from across the border.
Also, she said, two vehicles were reported stolen in the previous year and were transported to neighbouring countries through ungazetted points along the border.
She said cases of illegal gold mining in Kalakamati were on the rise and 13 foreign males and a Motswana man were arrested in July.
She added that the district was also experiencing influx of illegal immigrants who were arrested on a daily basis, repatriated but always found their way back into the country.
On human-wildlife conflict, she said the issue remained a challenge in the district with cases recorded in new areas along the border fence from Kalakamati to Moroka.
“Herds of elephants crossed the border from neighbouring country and destroyed crops in the fields. Frightening elephants from the fields has always been a challenge due to lack of open routes,” she said.
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