11 Sep 2017

Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Development Mr Nonofo Molefhi has called on Batswana to be patient with the land boards during the land demarcation process.

Addressing a kgotla meeting in Mosojane on Thursday, the minister stated that the demarcation process was meant to fill up spaces that were left idle when land boards allocated residential and business plots.

He highlighted that there was shortage of land in major towns and cities across the country which meant that villages in close proximity to these cities might be transformed to residential places to accommodate Batswana.

Mr Molefhi said with the current land shortage in Francistown it was highly likely that government would build houses through BHC in villages like Mosojane to augment accommodation shortage in the city.

He said the construction of the new road would bring a lot of opportunities among them infrastructure development and business establishment.

The minister explained that as a ministry they developed infrastructure according to requests from client ministries adding that they did not make decisions where and when to build hospitals and schools.

He indicated that BHC as a parastatal under his ministry built houses where there was a large clientele to buy or rent the houses.

He highlighted that BHC houses were not expensive contrary to the public perception that they were.

Mr Molefhi said the corporation incurred a lot of expenses because they were allocated undeveloped land where there was no water nor electricity connection in their proximity hence had to start from scratch and bring these utilities closer to them.

The minister said his ministry monitored contractors, engineers and quantity surveyors to ensure they were registered and complied with their terms of profession.

He said they took stringent measures by revoking certificates against those who cut corners and performed substandard jobs.

Minister Molefhi said they did not want to compromise the lives of Batswana by giving tenders and jobs to people who were not qualified.

The minister asked residents to consider installing solar power as an alternative to electricity since they had complained that BPC charges for transmitters were high.

He said BPC was in the process of extending their grid across the country so as to cover a vast area adding that Mosojane might be in the plan.

In his remarks, Kgosi Sibangani Mosojane thanked government for the Tshesebe /Masunga road adding that for a very long time his village was under developed. ENDS