02 Mar 2016

Mayor of Francistown, Ms Sylvia Muzila says development of Gerald Estate and golf course is on-going as inscribed in the city’s Vision 2022.

Addressing a full council meeting on Monday, the mayor said the layout design for the Gerald Estate central business district (CBD) was completed last year and was awaiting funding from the Ministry of Lands and Housing.

She explained that with the proposed CBD at the old golf course, the layout designs were at preparatory stages and the council’s executive committee had agreed that a delegation from the council would visit the City of Tshwane in South Africa for benchmarking on March 7-10.

She said there was no budget for the development of the area and the benchmarking exercise would come with concepts of the public private partnership approach for the development.

Still on the Vision 2022, the mayor said land measuring about 400 hectares in Gerald Estate had been set aside for the development of the Transportation hub as planned through the Special Economic Zones (SEZ).

She said the council had also earmarked its 139 hectares farm along the old Tonota/Francistown road for developments through PPPs.

On the council’s revenue collection, Ms Muzila said as at last month, the council collected P22 138 296.70 as rates during the current financial year as opposed to the P28 212 280 target. She said in the 2014/15 financial year on P13 066 381.38 was collected.

Ms Muzila indicated that in other sources of revenue the council collected P6 927 254.57 against the planned P13 484 150.

Regarding the Tonota/Francistown Road upgrading to a dual carriage-way she indicated that the physical progress stands at 96.5 per cent against the planned 100 per cent and the contractor has applied for extension period, which is still being considered.

Ms Muzila said the Thapama Interchange project is at 31.4 per cent physical status against the planned 51.9 per cent but the anticipated completion date is still August 2 this year.

On the poverty eradication programme, the Mayor said in the current year 483 out of 513 beneficiaries were funded to benefit from alternative packages leaving a balance of 30 beneficiaries partly funded.

She indicated funds amounting to P509 345 were received in January to clear the backlog on those partially funded and procurement is ongoing for the beneficiaries to embark on four welding, four beauty parlour, two beadwork, ten catering and ten hair salons.

She said in December last year and January this year a team from the Poverty Eradication Unit and the Department of Water Affairs came to assess water quality, conducted soil test and took the coordinates for the plots and boreholes identified to be used for horticultural projects.

She said so far three boreholes were identified to provide irrigation water for the horticultural plots in Kgaphamadi and Ntshe and in addition water points have been identified on the Tati River to provide irrigation for horticultural plots in Block 1.

On education matters, the Mayor applauded pupils who have excelled in the 2015 Standard seven and Form three results. She told the meeting that the North East region, which includes Francistown, has once more obtained position one nationally in the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) with an ABC percentage of 85.3 and scooped position two in the Junior Certificate (JC). Ends