18 Oct 2018

Francistown West Member of Parliament, Mr Ignatius Moswaane toured development projects in his constituency on October 17 to appreciate progress made.

The first stop was Monarch Beer Garden which is under renovation to create a market with seven stalls and toilets.

 The contractor, Ms Tlamelo Keborwele, a Monarch resident, said construction which was started in August this year was going on well and would be completed by November.

“By the end of this month roofing should be complete, and then from there we will work on plumbing and electrical installations” Ms Keborwele said. She decried low profits from most of the constituency development projects.

At Area 9 still in Monarch where Ms Keborwele also won a tender for the construction of an LA2 house,  she led Mr Moswaane’s delegation on the tour of the project. She noted that the LA2 house had been marred by challenges, but that with the advice of council inspectors, the house would be completed on time.

Francistown City Council’s chief technical officer, Mr Joel Kgakge, who was with the MP, informed Mr Moswaane that the house would be built on a site rich in loam soil hence the contractor had to follow some procedures to ensure the structure would withstand any damage.

 Mr Kgakge noted that they had engaged council structural engineers in every stage of the project.

Still at Monarch, a contractor of a semi-detached house in Area 1, Mr Tuelo Morapedi decried late payment by council, saying it hindered his ability to purchase materials.

In response, Mr Moswaane urged council to speed up payment processes, saying if all works were certified by official inspectors, it should not take seven days to pay contractors.

At another semi-detached house project in Phase 6, the site manager, Mr Boipelo Macheng, who stood in for the contractor, appreciated the service they received from council inspectors, saying they assisted them timeously.

However, the MP was not happy with the contractor who was not on site, saying he expected all contractors to be on site.

Briefing the MP,  Mr Kgakge explained that the semi-detached house was behind schedule because the contractor had many pending complaints with their office which slowed down progress.

At the Tatitown kgotla, a floor tiling project on the kgotla structure had been stalled because the contractor had been awaiting ordered tiles because the one he had been using were difficult to find.

 It came into light that the Ward Development Committee there had similar tiles, but had failed to form a quorum to sell their tiles to the contractor.

Mr Moswaane advised them to be stern in decision making and to not wait for council to inform them what to do.

Together with the principal community development officer, Mr Alec Kgangmotse, Mr Moswaane ordered that the contractor be given all WDC tiles at original price of purchase.

At Aerodrome the contractor, Mr Oganne Dabakhwe spurred with the area’s WDC chairperson, Mr Christopher Kampoo on employing processes that were undertaken by the contractor with the chairperson accusing the contractor of sabotaging local youth by hiring people from outside their area.

Area councillor, Mr Zibanani Benfield also expressed dissatisfaction at the way Mr Dabakhwe hired his staff, saying it was not transparent.

Commenting, Mr Moswaane expressed delight that the project, an office with storerooms and large conference room with toilets had been done to completion stage despite the challenges stated.

Mr Dabakhwe’s other project at Botsalano being a three bedroomed house was at completion stage.

At Gerald Estates cultural village, the contractor, Mr Zibisani Majila, who has been awarded a tender to construct ablution blocks, also decried late payment by council. Other than that, the project, he said, was progressing well.

According to Mr Kgangmotse, Gerald had four projects at the cultural village being a fenced garden, ablution blocks, recreational facility and an office, but tha only ablution blocks and fenced garden commenced while the other two stalled after the contractors returned their winning bids citing low profits.

The issue of many toilets in all the three other structures except the garden worried the MP who believed it exacerbated the costs.

He promised to follow-up on the matter and find solutions so all facilities earmarked for the area could be built.

The recreational park at Kanana ward was well on progress. Mr Kgakge explained that the palisade fencing of the park was near completion, and that a guard room construction would commence soon.

Plans were also afoot to build recreational facilities in the park.

He promised Mr Moswaane that all projects in his constituency would be done by the end of April next year as they initially had a 2018 deadline. ENDS