29 May 2018

The City of Francistown Full Council meeting started Monday (May 28) with the swearing in of the new Moselewapula ward councillor, Mr Reuben Ketlhoilwe.

Mr Ketlhoilwe of the Umbrella for Democratic Change emerged victorious during the May 20 by-election after beating his two rivals, Messrs Odireleng Ditshotlo of Alliance for Progressives and Gilbert Boikhutso of Botswana Democratic Party.

The ward had been vacant following the death of Councillor Lechedzani Mudenga of the BDP.

In his opening remarks, Mayor Sylvia Muzila raised a concern aboutthe unallocated plots at Gerald Estate by the Department of Lands.

She said the allocation of plots at this area had taken long despite their availability in 2012.

Ms Muzila explained that there were 2 515 unallocated serviced plots, out of which 1 988 are residential in the middle and high income categories and 427 being non-residential.

Ms Muzila therefore appealed to the councillors’ intervention on the matter; saying residents who had already been allocated plots should develop them to acceptable standards.

Mayor Muzila also briefed councillors about the closure of Francistown Botswana Meat Commission (BMC).

She said the council promised the responsible minister that it would undertake  consultations to reach farmers and encourage them to bring more cattle for slaughtering to the abattoir so that it could be re-opened.

She informed the house that such consultations were undertaken and the response from cattle farmers was that they would start to bring more than the required 800 cattle for slaughtering.

Regarding new projects, Ms Muzila stated that there were some council properties lying idle that had potential to generate  income for the council.

These, she said, included the Council Farm NQ 91, Dumela industrial plots, old Tatitown Primary School and Donga Cemetery, whose land use status should be changed to ‘usable’.

Councillors were informed that the council had entered into an agreement with the Ministry of Health and Wellness to operate a regional rehabilitation centre of its first kind in the country by utilising the hostels for the disabled at Gerald Estate.

She said the lease agreement of the partnership project commenced in April and would run for a period of 20 years.

She briefed councillors on the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 pilot project, which aims to explore and test the concept of working with the national sample of cities to support SDG 11 indicators.

She said the project was currently on going and that the focus was on data collection on the given indicators.

The mayor said under the Youth Development Fund (YDF), Francistown had been allocated P6 million and submission of applications was opened for in May, adding that each constituency in Francistown would get P2 million.

Ms Muzila also briefed councillors on the Francistown/Tonota and the Thapama interchange road intersection, saying the interchange, normally known as ‘spaghetti’, was still under defects liability period, which would end next month. ENDS