28 Oct 2015

North West district commissioner, Ms Chabongwa Matseka says the government will not implement all the proposed projects for National Development Plan 11 and District Development Plan 8 because the economy was facing challenges.

She said in an interview that the communities had to understand that they could propose more projects which they felt were a priority but budget would determine implementation of such projects. 

Ms Matsheka said district proposal plans compete for funding with projects from other districts, as to how they contribute to national priorities as per the four thematic working groups namely; social upliftment, sustainable environment, economy and employment and governance, safety and security.

In addition, she pointed out that some projects would be approved by relevant ministries while some might be carried over to the next plan.

The consultation exercise for the district plan was conducted in November last year and the district planners were advised to consider the outlined key areas  such as poverty eradication, local economic development, sustainable development and  population dynamics hence they had to revisit the plan.

It was reported that the grand total for the DDP 8 project proposal amounted to over P16 billion. Ms Matseka observed that a large share of the district cake was given to the Ministry of Transport and Communication.

She noted that the district gave priority to construction of roads looking at the current situation where the roads are in a bad state.Ms Matseka observed that they believed that construction of roads would create employment for communities.

The district commissioner also stated that the district as a tourism destination would benefit from the construction of good roads which would ultimately attract more investors.

Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development came second in terms of budget share. Ends