11 Apr 2016

The Francistown City Council (FCC) continues to  maintain strong international relations with other city’s councils and municipals around the world.

In an interview, FCC senior public relations officer (PRO), Mr Joseph Wasubera said as a way to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and push towards the City of Francistown’s realisation of its 2022 Vision, the city council has engaged in numerous twinning agreements with regional and international cities.

The Francistown council, he said, has twinned with Plumtree Town Council and Bulawayo Municipality in Zimbabwe, Livingstone City Council in Zambia and the City of Windhoek in Namibia.

In addition, Mr Wasebura said the council has twinned with the city of Taiyuan in China, Davenport in Iowa, United States of America (USA) and the City of Genk in Belgium.

“Most of these twinnings, particularly the ones we have with councils in Africa date as far as  the 80s. Unfortunately they have been dormantl, but we have long had memorandum of understandings with them.” he said.

Mr Wasubera said they have renewed their friendship with all the councils and their cities, noting that there has been reciprocal visits between them and the council of Plumtree and  Bulawayo to cement relations.

He said as for the East London city in South Africa, commonly known as Buffalo City, they were still awaiting response on resuscitating their partnership.

“We have already signed memorandums of understanding with the city of Davenport and that of Taiyuan and the two city leaders have promised to visit Francistown soon to strengthen our friendship,” Mr Wasubera said.

Of all the twinning agreements, Mr Wasubera noted that the twinning with the city of Genk in Belgium has been the most successful and rewarding since its inception in 2004.

He recalled that in 2012, through the twinning agreement, a competition to select the best ward in Francistown was held and P25 000 was won by Area S.

Other notable city developments that came as a result of the Francistown-Genk twinning was the setting up of a youth centre where 25 computers were donated and the construction of a kgotla shelter in Bluetown, 

The City of Genk, he said, also funded the capacity building of Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) employees who were involved in the upgrading of the Mambo Sewage Waste Water Treatment Centre in Francistown.

He said the reciprocal visits undertaken have resulted in the exploration of critical areas of sewerage water treatment, which included the installation of a telemetry system at the same Mambo Waste Water Treatment Plant.

The project, he said, was carried out by Aquafin engaged by the city of Genk.

 “Our council also benefited from the Genk health exchange programme, they also extended assistance to visually impaired pupils at Phatlhogo Primary School. Every year we also compile a list of viable ward development projects and submit them to Genk for funding and eight of all the ward development projects we have submitted have been funded thus far,” he said.

Furthermore, Mr Wasubera noted that the city of Francistown also partners with local councils such as that of North-East, Selibe Phikwe and Central District Council. Ends