23 Nov 2016

The need for Francistown City councillors to understand responsibilities they have in attracting private sector investment was highlighted by the city mayor Ms Sylvia Muzila during the full council meeting on Monday.

Ms Muzila encouraged them to put more effort in unlocking investment opportunities and intensifying issues of employment creation in the city as a matter of priority in their development programmes.

She emphasised on economic position of the city because of its significant to latest developments that affected this country, particularly the region, as result of the closure of the mines.

She said in February this year, Moolman mining Botswana, which was contracted by Tati Nickel mining company shut down its operation and as a result a number of employees were left jobless.

Following that, she said Tati Nickel mining company, which had been merged with BCL, also closed down indefinitely which resulted in another job loss.

In addition Ms Muzila said the loss of jobs in numbers has undoubtedly increased the pool of the unemployed in the city.

She mentioned that clearly job loss will bring negative impact on the economic growth and the city`s development as a whole but “we all know that the mines contributed a lot to the economy of city of

Francistown and to the country as a whole,” she added.

Furthermore she noted that the net job losses came at the time when the city aim was to intensify their efforts in attracting investors into the city of Francistown through vision 2022.

Ms Muzila said the vision strived to transform the city and to motivate joint ventures for investment and development impetus in the region.

Responding to the Mayor’s address, Councillor Godisang Radisigo of Satellite South pointed out that the council was taking its time on addressing investments issues in Francistown.

He said the issue of Botswana Housing Corporation house which were affected by defects was worrisome.

Mr Radisigo said houses that were ready to be utilised should be allocated to the public for rental as soon as possible rather than be exposed to vandalism.BOPA