29 Aug 2019

Selebi Phikwe Town Council has experienced some challenges, especially with regard to the closure of the BCL mine, but also had its fair share of achievements, Mayor, Mr Molosiwa Molosiwa has said.

Addressing a full council session recently, Mr Molosiwa said since Selebi Phikwe was a mono-economic type of town, which relied solely on mining of copper and nickel, it suffered more than 5000 direct and another 5000 or more indirect jobs losses when the mine closed.

He said this caused a major exodus and closure of business outlets, which further compounded the unemployment statistics of the town.

He explained that upon closure of the mine, business operators who had acquired loans to start and upgrade their businesses, experienced a decline hence the inability to service loans.

The mayor cited inadequate infrastructure development and maintenance of public facilities as some of the major challenges, which he attributed to budgetary constraints, that hampered efforts of attracting investors to the town.

Mr Molosiwa noted the police junction traffic lights, which have not been operational since May 2019, due to the unavailability of the new software as the current controller was phased out.

He said over the past years the Selebi Phikwe council had engaged in several programmes geared toward improvement of human lives.

He said deserving beneficiaries did not have access to land or operating space. He lamented lack of commitment by project beneficiaries.

Another challenge was the incapacity to accommodate hazardous waste by the local landfill, which thwarts the efforts  to diversify the town’s economy by attracting industries.

The mayor explained that despite the challenges there were some  successes such as the rehabilitation of Mekoro (Phase 4) drainage system and Mekoro streetlight reticulation.

He said through Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP), the town council managed to meet the 22 classroom per school national development in all 11 primary schools as per the Revised National Policy on Education.

He added that 218 teachers’ houses against 273 teachers were built through the programme and attributed the deficit of 55 to the recent recruitment of teachers.

Mr Molosiwa also said, through the Constituency Community Development Programme, public facilities like stadium, showground, roads paving, rehabilitation of intersections, bridges, culvert construction, kgotla shelters, houses for some ward development committees, maintenance of street lights and traffic lights were achieved.

He also pointed out that the council acquired earth moving machines, light city machinery, heavy duty concrete mixer and road marking machine through the Road/Fuel Levy Fund programme, as well as the Tshekedi Loop Road Project.

“Union junction traffic lights which were non-operational for some time have been rehabilitated and are now fully operational,” he said.

Amongst other things, Mr Molosiwa highlighted that the council was able to assist less privileged individuals through the implementation of programmes such as Destitution and Orphan/ Vulnerable care.

He also said, since 2014 to date, 70 SHHA housing projects had been completed.

Mr Molosiwa said the council had joined forces with SPEDU, which is currently facilitating high impact projects in Selebi Phikwe with a potential to create 1865 jobs.

He noted the the projects included construction of the Platjaan Bridge, which was nearing completion with 130 employees on site.

He said SPEDU engaged with the Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services (MLWS) to accelerate land applications for investors and it was involved with 58 companies, which are at different stages of project development. He said, amongst these companies, 22 were at advanced stages of implementation, and 15 citizen owned in IT, manufacturing, agriculture and construction, as well as three government projects. Ends