15 Apr 2018

Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has allocated Francistown City Council P40 million to be used for road maintenance after the damage caused by Cyclone Dineo in 2017.

That was said by the deputy town clerk for technical services, Mr Thuto Obakeng during a special full council meeting recently.

 Mr Obakeng told councillors that after the huge torrential rains that devastated most parts of the country last year, most of their tarred roads which were nearing the end of their lifespan were severely damaged and left in bad state.

Most of the roads, he noted, survived on being maintained on a continuous basis.

After the rains, Mr Obakeng explained that the ministry asked them to conduct an assessment of the damage and do cost estimates for repairing the roads.

“The costs for repairing all the roads that had been damaged was over P100 million but the ministry asked us to re-visit the assessment in terms of priority roads which were damaged as they could only avail P40 million for the work,” he highlighted.

The deputy town clerk also added that when prioritising which roads to maintain, they looked at the severity of the damage, frequent use of the road, threat of accidents and the traffic volumes.

Consequently, he said that in the process they would be doing Asphalt overlay, resealing and pothole patching.

In addition to this, Mr Obakeng mentioned that they would also be repairing storm water drainage systems as these also had an impact on road damages.

The envisaged maintenance work, he said, would be carried out during the 2018/19 financial year and noted that tender documents had already been prepared and were ready to be issued for work to commence.

Councillors expressed mixed feelings about the limited funds that had been allocated for the road repairs.

Nominated councillor, Mr Peter Ngoma suggested that the budgeted P40 million be split equally between the 19 wards without prioritising certain roads.

Another nominated councilor, Mr Zazambi Tuelo argued that all wards in Francistown had roads that had been badly damaged by the rains, hence advocating for each ward to ge ta share.

 He also queried the materials that were used in road maintenance arguing that in the past low quality materials had been used.

He also requested the council to prioritise roads in areas where public transport operators refused to take people to.

Councillor Tuelo also pleaded with the ministry to consider looking at constructing a by-pass road to protect the newly completed internal roads in the city.

Councillor Ben Mpotokwane of Donga ward agreed with the town clerk to prioritise roads with high traffic volumes.

 He also said that it would be difficult to divide the money amongst the different wards as the roads were not similar with some having more traffic volumes than others.

Councillor Andy Boatile also encouraged the council to consider laying interlocking bricks on the Molapo road as there was no road to patch.

 A majority of those who spoke agreed with the prioritising of roads with high traffic volumes and the use of interlocking bricks instead of pothole patching and resealing. ENDS