11 Feb 2019

Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Development Mr Vincent Seretse says he is impressed with the workmanship and overall progress of the P161.6 million Mmathubudukwane police project.

Speaking during the tour of the infrastructure, Mr Seretae said all the engaged local contractors and their professionalism towards the project was impressive.

“In the past, local contractors were reported to never complete projects whilst spending money on lavish lifestyles, but this is not the case with the Mmathubudukwane police project,” he said, adding that the architect, consultant, contractor and sub contracts were all local companies.

This, he said, was a good indication and a reassurance that Batswana companies could also be entrusted with projects of this magnitude.

The P161 637 158.93 project, was awarded to Mido Construction.

Mr Tshoganetso Rantshilo of Architects Collaborative, project,  architects, said the project commenced on January 2017 and should have been completed last month , but was now expected to be completed in March 2019.

He cited two reasons for the delay saying “firstly, the sewage system to be contracted was supposed to be a wetlands system but that was changed by the client which meant we had to wait for an alternative and this took time”.

The other reason for the delay was unavailability of bricks from Lobatse Clay Works., he said.

“Lobatse Clay Works stopped production of bricks at some point and this meant that we had to procure bricks beyond our borders and this took time also because we had to engage with the client and PPADB to get the go ahead to outsource,” said Mr Rantshilo.

Mr Rantshilo said the project consisted of a standard police office block similar to the one in Dibete.

“We also have 10 medium cost houses, 5 high cost houses, 10 double-storey blocks (4units in each yard which makes it 40 low cost houses in total), football pitch and four (4) small-sized courts,” he said.

For his part, Mr Musa Basera of Mido Construction said they had employed close to 300 people, the majority of them being from Mmathubudukwane and surrounding villages.

“The project is currently at 93 per cent and we are working around the clock to complete it by the agreed date. The other issue we had was with Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) for not keeping set schedules and timelines, even though they were paid by June 2017. For 6-8 months BPC was moving us from pillar to post and only came here last week Monday and they had promised that by February 22 they would be done,” he said. ENDS