14 May 2014

The city of Francistown has adopted a new waste management strategy in order to make it attractive to investors.

This came after the city authorities identified activities that contributed to the improper waste disposal. The town clerk, Mr Lebuile Israel said this in a briefing with media recently. 

He noted that they identified areas in the informal sector which contributed to dirty surroundings, how they collected waste around town and their use of open spaces. Also, he said they focused on how they enforced the laws and how business owners manage waste around the city.

Under the current arrangement, the town clerk explained that they now collect waste once in a week in residential areas while at the bus rank waste is collected every day. Initially, he mentioned that they had 10 refuse trucks but operated only four.


For a city like Francistown, he explained that they required 14 trucks to be effective in waste collection. Mr Israel explained that the council agreed to increase its fleet with three more trucks and said these would soon be unveiled.

“Another strategy that we adopted was to outsource waste collection in the Blocks and Garden view. Tenders have been awarded and waste collection is divided into four categories with each company given an area where they would be responsible for waste collection,” he said.

Through this, he highlighted, they hope waste collection would improve and lead to a clean city. He also explained that they were negotiating with their stakeholders in the private sector to assist them in refuse collection.


Informal sector in the city, he noted, contributed significantly to waste. However, he mentioned that since their operation early this year to rid the city of illegal vendors, the informal sector was responding positively towards these efforts.

Consequently, he highlighted that the management of open spaces has also been responsible for littering as some illegal churches allocated themselves spaces and erected illegal structures which contributed to indiscriminate waste in those spaces.

“We have engaged the church leadership, especially those who allocated themselves land,” he noted. However, he said some of these churches are difficult to deal with; hence they would resort to evicting them forcefully once they secure court orders.

During their engagements, the town clerk also mentioned that some tenants complained that building owners around the City contributed to waste and inhospitable conditions by failing to carry out proper maintenance of their facilities to the required standards.

The Mayor of Francistown, Mr James Kgalajwe also added that the waste management strategy would go a long way in assisting them to polish the city’s image, explaining that there was no way they could succeed in selling a dirty City to investors. ENDS