Develop Gabane Campaign (DGC) is on the 5th October at 5 o’clock scheduled to have its 5th consultative meeting at the Thamaga/Mogoditshane Sub District Council board room with council senior officials.
This meeting will, according to the DGC Chairperson, be the final one; subsequent to which the youthful Non Governmental Organization will set a date in which to petition the Office of the President for the underdevelopment of Gabane Village. Recommendations of the Department of Waste Management and Pollution Control (DWMPC) report that was recently published in The Telegraph newspaper have apparently strengthened DGC’s complaints that Gabane is abandoned by the country’s leadership.
“As DGC, we have always been looking for ways by which we can research and support our arguments with concrete proof that indeed the dusty roads in our village are a health hazard. Obviously, as a new organization, finances have been a hindrance. Following the article in The Telegraph newspaper and ultimately the DWMPC report itself, conveying of the message on our concerns has been smoothened. We now have proof compiled by experts that people’s health is endangered by the condition of the roads there. We cannot afford to keep on taking people to health facilities while we know their health problem is artificially caused by dust from roads. Gabane roads should be tarred, if not they should be paved,” said Moreetsi Gomang, Chairperson of DDC.
Gomang said they have held several meetings with various stakeholders in which the issue of petitioning the highest office in the country was agreed upon.
“The first meeting was held at Pule Memorial School in the village. In the meeting, DGC had called the area Member of Parliament to find out from him what the hindrance towards development was. The second meeting was called by the area MP himself at the kgotla. Many members of the community were in attendance and the DGC representative present expressed for the first time in such gathering that DGC suggested petitioning of the highest office. The elderly in the village suggested there should be a delegation to represent the community. Nothing positive has been heard as yet about the delegation’s assignment. Thirdly, the DGC’s Annual General Meeting held on the 30th June resolved that petitioning the OP was the way to go, but also recommended that more extensive consultations be made. A forth consultative meeting thus followed again at Pule School where all leadership of the village was in attendance. All present, in the exception of Gabane Community Trust, which neither attended nor explained the reason for none-attendance, anonymously agreed that petitioning the OP was the best way forward,” said Gomang.
As luck would have it, Gomang said, the DWMPC released a detailed report that the DGC central committee is still to thoroughly analyse its contents in a meeting to be held soon. A meeting was held recently following the report’s release, with a Senior Kweneng District Council official that paved the way for the forthcoming one, the first week of October.
“For the attendance of the forthcoming meeting, we urge all youth of Gabane, especially those working in Mogoditshane Industrial site where diamonds are processed to come in large numbers. The attendance should be a sign of the concern we have on our village,” he urged.
He is satisfied that DGC has thoroughly prepared for the petition.
On the achievements of the NGO, Gomang said his organization’s achievements are there for everyone to see. Top on the list is the NGO’s website, which will be in use very soon. The ordinary people’s voices in the village are now loud and clear due to DGC’s efforts.
“It is no longer the elderly who are given information on planned developments, which they sometimes do not understand as many are not literate enough. We have managed to find a partner who wants to help the community with a resource centre. We have secured a plot for this and negotiations are on-going with the financier. We have recently had a strategic meeting with the political leadership (Councillors) of the village in which the politicians vowed to discard party variations and work together towards the common goal of empowering community. A plot has been identified which will in the future be developed into a recreational centre,” said Gomang, adding that the community no longer had to rely on politicians’ verbal strength to have developments in the village. All thanks to the neutral DGC.
Other achievements, Gomang said, include the recent attendance by DGC members of a proposal writing workshop at the American Embassy. The organisation now has experts in proposal writing and project management which means the committee does not have to mingle with proposals anymore. Their hopes at DGC are raised by this development since the United States of America is the leading world donor to NGO projects, so training by them brightens the NGO’s future.
Altogether, 14 members of the more than 300 member- organisation have had some training in project implementation. Ten trained for horticulture; and the school gardening, one of its initial projects will soon take off in a swing. They are still scouting for funds – which are in the region of P40┬á000. They approached an organisation in the village ÔÇôthe Pelegano Village Industries ÔÇô for funds and they are in the process of scaling down the proposal.
