The residents are opposed to Raborokgwe’s establishment, the Wheelbarrow Nursery and Tea Garden which hosts wedding parties and other activities, making noise
GAZETTE REPORTER
Former Chief Executive Officer of Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) and Director of Wheelbarrow Nursery and Tea Garden Motshudi Raborokgwe is facing some of his neighbors at Notwane, who have accused him of conniving with the district council to contravene the law and subject them to noise and nuisance.
In their founding affidavits, the residents are opposed to Raborokgwe’s establishment, the Wheelbarrow Nursery and Tea Garden which hosts wedding parties and other activities- asking the court to put an immediate end to what they say has become a major irritant.
“The noise is in direct contravention of the Bye-Laws of the South-East District Council (Noise and Nuisance) particularly Bye Law 3 which is an absolute prohibition to noise and nuisance. The provision does not permit any exception at all and does not allow for the council to issue permits to allow noise and nuisance.”
They accuse the council of being complicit to this breach of the law not only by failing to enforce its own bye laws, “…It turned out that the council is issuing permits to the 1st respondents in order to allow and encourage it to disturb the peace with its noise and nuisance.”
On their responding affidavit, Raborokgwe as the Director of the said establishment said though the area was zoned for agricultural, and with Wheelbarrow Nursery and Tea Garden property having started as a nursery and tea garden, they sort advise from the council when business was not doing good and were advised to explore other business avenues on the same plot to prevent the retrenchment of their 12 employees.
He said after realizing there was a serious need for a wedding and events venue outside Gaborone, he approached the council and was yet again advised to apply for noise permits if sound systems are going to be used. Raborokgwe said in trying to keep the peace and to respect his neighbors, he hired a Disk Jockey (DJ) to regulate the noise during events, and this seems to not have satisfied the neighbors.