11 Dec 2019

The newly elected North West District Council chairmperson, Mr Kebareeditse Ntsogotlho, has expressed displeasure towards poor road infrastructure in the district.

Delivering a speech during a full council meeting on December 9, Mr Ntsogotlho revealed that the roads continued to deteriorate due to lack of maintenance.

Nevertheless, he said efforts had been made over the past months to attend to selected roads such as asphalt overlay of Phuduhudu/ Makalamabedi road.

The project would be completed in February next year and Toteng/ Sehithwa road asphalt overlay would be completed same month.

Mr Ntsogotlho stated that works for asphalt overlay of Nokaneng/Gumare roads commenced in November while Tsau/ Habu turnoff asphalt overlay was awarded on November 28. 

Other roads maintenance, he said, included the dry grading and spot improvement of Khwai/Mababe and Nokaneng/Qangwa roads. 

He also informed the meeting that the district was funded at the tune of P30 million to execute resealing and asphalt overlay of Maun internal roads.

The project incorporated resealing of 11km of internal roads, asphalt overlay of approximately 12km and shoulder with concrete kerbing.

The chairperson stated that the project was awarded to Parks Mining and Quarries company at the tune of over P29 637 368.22 adding that the project commenced on the 22nd July and was expected to be completed by 18th November 2019.

Mr Ntsogotlho explained that it was unfortunate since the contractor did not start on time due to failure to acquire material design mix for asphalt overlay.

“This resulted on three weeks elapse before the contractor reported on site. As construction of asphalt overlay resumed, it was noted that the design mix was not as specified and the contractor was stopped from executing his works till the results of the design mix complied with the specification,” he stated. 

Besides that, he said the resealing of internal roads continued of which 10.5 km of the roads was complete. 

As mitigation measures, the council, he said had approved the contractor’s request for extension of time up to 23rd January 2020 adding that the contractor had also increased his fleet from five trucks of asphalt material to 10 trucks in a day.  

The overall progress to date, he said was 40 per cent the entire works.      

On other issues, Mr Ntsogotlho told fellow councillors that early this year, the district completed midterm review exercise of the Development Plan 8 (2017-2023) and submitted the review document to Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.

The document, he said outlined several key issues facing the district and also proposed several mitigations towards addressing everyday challenges.

To date, he said the ministry was working on finalizing the document that were made for final approval and possible funding of some projects and programmes. 

He said they expected the exercises to be completed before the end of the current financial year of 2019/20.

Mr Ntsogotlho urged fellow councillors to pledge to serve selflessly adding that they should appreciate that they were the chosen few by their communities hence they should strive for excellence in service delivery.

“There is a saying that says if you want something done right, you have to do it right yourself. It is always a privilege for us to serve our communities and let me remind you that we will be judged by the goals that we have set ourselves. It will be suicidal for us to doubt the intelligence of our society who elected us as their councillors to serve them with honesty,” he added. Ends