14 Feb 2017

Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development says since 2010 Gaborone City Council (GCC) has had one Public Private Partnerships (PPP) project.
Answering a question in Parliament on Monday, Mr Frans Van Der Westhuizen said the partnership is with a local company for the development of plots 2112, 2113 situated in Bontleng residential neighbourhood.
He indicated that no income has been received from this project as development has not started.
“The private sector party has submitted plans for consideration of a mixed use development,” he said.
The assistant minister further said there are no PPP projects that GCC has delayed to undertake as a deliberate and conscious decision has been taken to approach PPP projects with caution to avoid going into agreements that may unduly expose either government or GCC.
He said GCC has prioritised two plots envisaged to be developed through PPP, being mixed use development of civic centre plot 330 and remainder of plot 329. Also, a mixed use transport oriented hub on plot 17983 and plot 14379 has been prioritised.
Mr Van Der Westhuizen said that expressions of interest have already been closed and the best evaluated submissions have been shortlisted for further engagement with a view to soliciting bids for detailed project proposals.
He said ‘it is anticipated that the detailed developments proposals would have been submitted and perused by the end of the second quarter of 2017/18, after which time it will then be possible to generate definitive implementation timelines.’
“In terms of value creation through PPP, my ministry engages the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development as the latter has a PPP unit responsible for overall coordination, monitoring of PPP policy and projects and provision of technical assistance to ministries,” he said.
Member of Parliament for Gaborone North, Mr Haskins Nkaigwa had asked the minister how many PPP projects had been undertaken by GCC since 2010, to state these projects and how much income was received monthly and yearly from each of them, what is delaying GCC in undertaking PPP projects.
The Gaborone North legislator wanted to know what the ministry was doing to ensure value creation through PPP in the city and what PPP projects are envisaged in Gaborone and when they are likely to be implemented. ENDS