Summit 2016: Lobatse Town Council

Lobatse Town Council is part of southern region and is situated approximately 70km, south of Gaborone. It is defined in the east by sharing the international border with South Africa. The town is surrounded by South East District freehold farms. It has approximate size of 40 km2. Lobatse has excellent linkage by both road and rail with other areas within the country and neighbouring countries like Botswana and Namibia it is also houses big industries like Botswana Meat Commission, sugar packaging company and clay works. It has a population of about 30 883.

The council has put in place a number of gender-related policies to guide its work. The district council consist of 9 male councillors and 4 female councillors. The council aims to expand its percentage of female councillors from 30%. The Mayor of the council is a female.

The council is made up of 16 committees, nine of which are chaired by woman. There are more women employed than men in their Workforce of the council.

Young people, people living with disabilities (PWD) and community members participate in community-based planning projects and meetings. Between 76 and 100 percent, women participate in public consultations.

The total workforce of the council employees consist of 54 percent women, 16 percent youth and two percent people with disabilities. Women are only 4 of management. The accounting and revenue officers are women.

There are provisions for maternity leave but none for paternity leave. The council does have a sexual harassment policy. Cases related to Sexual harassment, The victim reports to the supervisor within the Council; if the matter cannot be solved at that level, it is then referred to the Human Resources department. If the matter is too sophisticated it is then routed to the Town Clerk who then makes relevant decisions depending on the conclusion from the investigation/inquiries made. This may mean involving the Police or subjecting offender to the penalties in the Public Service Act with regards to sexual harassment.

The Lobatse Town Council allocates a substantial budget to gender-related projects, these amounts have increased from 2015 to 2016.

As part of the of the Council’s local economic development plan, There are 45 stalls in total, however, some of the stalls are shared by two people each, raising the total number of

occupants to 53. There are 330 beneficiaries benefiting from jobs created by the council, 300 women and 30 men.

Women, men, PWD, and youth are involved in the planning, management, and maintenance of housing. There is a total number of 370 people allocated to housing by the council, 170 of which are women and 300 are men.

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