31 Jul 2019

Some residents of Gabane have been accused of frustrating the ongoing Gabane internal roads project.

The P240m project is said to be at 76 per cent against the targeted 80 per cent, owing to the delays caused by the residents.

Kweneng District Council chairperson, Mr Jeffrey Sibisibi, conveyed this to the Gabane community during a kgotla meeting on July 30. 

He said some residents were unwilling to pave way for the project.

 Mr Sibisibi said some of the residents were also interfering with the road under construction by using it even though it was not yet opened for traffic.

Other residents, he said, were frustrating efforts to have bus and taxi bays next to their yards, saying that would attract thieves and littering.

 The chairperson expressed concern that this contributed to the project delay even though it was the council’s wish to have the project completed on time and within budget.

Therefore, he pleaded with the community to cooperate with council and iron out all issues to have the project completed on time to avoid costs overruns.

Mr Sibisibi complained that delay in completing the project would lead to more costs for the council since the contractor would have completed his time frame on site and required more compensation.

He said Gabane internal roads project was of enormous importance to the community because lack of tarred internal roads had been the community’s outcry.

Mr Sibisibi said the council wanted to have some savings from the project so that other needy parts of the project such as street lighting, which were not sufficient from the project onset would be addressed.

For his part, the village chief, Kgosi Seeletso Pule, also stressed that the ongoing project had not been spared from challenges caused by the community.

He regretted that some of those who frustrated the project were living in the village as tenants, but were careless about the development of Gabane.

Kgosi Pule said if the community could work together for the betterment of the village, the challenges would be easily sorted.

During comments, residents complained that the contractor had not hired Gabane residents yet Economic Stimulus Package (ESP) project were supposed to give locals first priority.

However, Mr Sibisibi said the contractor had dismissed some employees for coming to work under the influence of alcohol while others absconded work after pay day, only to surface towards month end. Ends