28 Aug 2018

Construction of 99 Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) houses at Extension seven in Palapye is said to be behind schedule.

Palapye Administrative Authority chairperson, Mr Lesedi Phuthego informed councillors during the ongoing Palapye Sub-council meeting that the P14.8million project was 23 per cent behind schedule due to the shortage of imported backfill (G5 gravel).

He said the contractor had since identified another supplier and was stockpiling material on site.

The project is expected to be complete by August 2019.

Similarly, he said another project worth P4.7million for Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security at Extension 10, which entailed the erection and completion of five houses and associated site works was at the mobilisation stage.

The project is also expected to be complete by August 2019 and he said BHC had two more planned projects this financial year which comprised 150 units multi-family residential blocks of flats at Ext 7 as well as 107 houses at Ext 7 and associated works.

Regarding the SHHA scheme, Mr Phuthego said funds for turnkey projects for this financial year had been disbursed and beneficiaries have been orientated.

He said the assessment of the plots was complete and only waiting for BHC to start construction.

He further said 32 applications were received this financial year with the waiting list standing at 535 for turn-key and 18 for home improvement.

Of the 535 turnkey houses, 249 are for Palapye, 194 for Lerala/Maunatlala, 18 for Serowe South while 12 and 62 are for Serowe North and Mmadinare respectively.

In addition, he informed councillors that a challenge of unserviced loans and poor workmanship by contractors still persisted.

Touching on finance, Mr Phuthego emphasised the need to establish a stable and sustainable financial safeguard system that keeps risks under control, create new models of investment and financing, improve revenue collection and encourage greater cooperation between government and private capital.

“We should jointly create an environment that will facilitate transparency to establish a fair and equitable system of increasing government funds,” he said. ENDS