07 Jan 2018

Members of Parliament for Palapye, Mmadinare and Lerala/Maunatlala have expressed their concern over delayed Constituency Development Projects.

Speaking at the Palapye Administrative Authority Consultative Forum held in Palapye on January 5, the three MPs Mr Moiseraele Goya, Mr Kefentse Mzwinila and Mr Prince Maele said government allocated each constituency P10m to undertake community projects this financial year.

Mr Mzwinila expressed concern over delayed community projects yet this financial year was coming to an end.

He said government intended to allocate each constituency P10m every financial year thus delay in implementing projects would result in projects undertaken this financial year overlapping to the next financial year.

He said the projects just like those under the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) were aimed at empowering local communities by creating employment thus their delay would affect employment creation.

Mr Goya shared the sentiments that constituency projects needed close monitoring by Palapye leadership.

He said funds allocated for these projects should be used as planned.

He said this year should be the year of hard work and making good decisions that would help improve the lives of the people.

He added that he had consulted the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Slumber Tsogwane on the issue of declaring Palapye to be a township looking at the fact that Palapye was developing at a fast pace.

He said more developments were taking place in Palapye which called for a fully-fledged landfill, proper roads and sewage system.

He said Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) was challenged to expand the Sewage Treatment Plant which had long reached its lifespan.

Regarding the landfill, Mr Goya explained that according to the 2007-2031 Palapye Development Plan, a place earmarked for the construction of a landfill was demarcated near Lemone lands.

He explained that this was met with resistance from the community, hence the matter was still pending.

He said the matter needed to be resolved as a matter of urgency to pave way for the construction of a landfill.

MP for Lerala/Maunatlala, Mr Maele also expressed concern over delayed LG1109 projects, added that it reflected negatively on the political leadership.

He urged the council to fast track the projects and ensure close monitoring.

He added that he supported the idea of declaring Palapye a township to enable Lerala Sub-district to take off.

He said currently Palapye was getting the lion share of the Palapye sub-district budget as such declaring Palapye a township would help develop villages in his constituency since they would be having separate budgets.

On high numbers of people awaiting plot allocation, Mr Maele said the country was only 518 000 square km resulting in shortage of land as a result of increasing population.

He explained that the population had increased from 418 902 in 1951 to 2.3m according to 2017 projections.

He stated that the population was keeping on increasing yet the size of the country was not increasing.

He explained that in the olden days, land was only used for communal purpose unlike today where there was tribal, state and freehold land.

He further said since land was used for various purposes, it was challenging to allocate plots as desired.

However, Mr Maele said his ministry had already established that over 60 per cent of people in the waiting lists were people who already had plots.

He said the land board was doing its best to acquire land from people to enable them to allocate plots.

He stated that the process was usually long and had financial implications. ENDS