21 Mar 2019

Progress has been made on the 10 community sports facilities announced during the 2018 committee of supply speech.

Answering a question in Parliament on March 19, Assistant Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Dikgang Makgalemele said most projects had been allocated land and permission to develop the land was being sought.

He said at the moment, drawing of site plans and designing of the facilities, considering local areas geotechnical and topographical survey was on going.

Mr Makgalemele said designs had been conditionally approved for projects in Moshupa and Good Hope, adding designs for Mmadinare had been deferred by the District Planning Committee, while for the rest of the projects designs were being finalised

He said the only project that had not taken off was Kanye North since consultation with the community took longer than expected.He said there was no construction that had started for any projects, adding the projects were implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.

All funds, he said, that were allocated to the projects had been sent to districts and sub-districts that were implementing those projects, except Kanye North since consultations were still ongoing.

Mr Makgalemele said the challenges encountered were similar in all facilities, amongst them land allocation and consultations with communities in identifying places to construct the facilities which took a considerable length of time.

He cited Kanye North which took a long time to identify land to construct the facility, while Moshupa facility had recently been relocated to a new plot and that alone had seriously affected progress of the project.

He said another challenge was setting up of technical teams to deliver the projects at districts, adding that considering the limited funds available to construct those facilities reliance was on council personnel but some were engaged in other projects.

He said there were also delays in procurement and engagement of experts to carry out geotechnical and topographical surveys considering the limited funds, while master plans and designs of facilities mostly relied on council’s employees who were not readily available at some districts.

Moshupa-Manyana Member of Parliament, Mr Karabo Gare had wanted the minister to explain progress regarding the ten community sports facilities announced during the 2018 Committee of Supply Speech.

MP Gare also wanted to know the ministry tasked with implementing the projects and if all the funds had been released to that ministry, the challenges if any, given the slow pace of implementation. ENDS