11 Dec 2019

The ministry of of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services, has developed a long term strategy to address the infrastructure development in greater Gaborone and Francistown, minister Kefentse Mzwinila has said.

Answering a question in Parliament, Mr Mzwinila said the strategy extended to other urban and rural areas of Botswana to help facilitate industrialisation and economic development.

The minister said the planned development was achieved through the National Spatial Plan (NSP) 2036 which was approved in May 2019.

He said the NSP aimed to influence the distribution of people and activities over Botswana’s territory.

Mr Mzwinila explained that the NSP was a 20-year strategy that would provide the spatial vision to guide future development and investment decisions to promote equitable social development, promote vibrant economic growth and maintain a sustainable environment.

According to Mr Mzwinila, the NSP recommended 11 planning regions and their economic opportunities. 

He added that the NSP had identified specific characteristics of the Urban and Rural clusters within their regions and key ideas about how they should be planned and supported to become environmentally sustainable, socially equitable and economically vibrant entities.

The regions identified include Gaborone, Serowe-Palapye-Mahalapye, Francistown, Selebi Phikwe, Maun, Letlhakane, Gumare, Ghanzi, Kang, Tsabong and Kasane.

The minister further clarified that his ministry together with the National Strategy Office and the Ministry of Finance and Economic development were in the process of aligning with the NSP and the National Development Planning process with the view to eventually achieve integrated planning and implementation of national programs and projects and initiatives.

He, however, noted that the implementation of the recommended NSP activities, which included the development of spatial plans for Gaborone and Francistown, could not be accommodated under the NDP 11 midterm review because the available resources could only accommodate ongoing projects.

The Minister said while the implementation of NSP had been accommodated into NDP 11 midterm review, there were ongoing projects targeting villages around Gaborone which were planned for implementation during NDP 11.

He said the villages included Mochudi South Land Servicing targeting 848 plots (Phase 1 including servicing of Morwa Layout for 313 plots while phase 2 covered Pilane industrial with 99 plots and Pilane BHC plots with 436 plots).

He further added that the Mmopane Block 1 Land Servicing Project was targeting 1 664 plots.

The minister told Parliament that there were no projects planned for Gaphatshwa, Kopong, Gakuto, and Mmatseta citing budgetary constraints

He, however, clarified that land in various locations had been reserved for the planned projects so that Economic Zones authority could service and allocate that land to investors in order to facilitate industrialisation among others.

He noted that while the land locations may not be in the outskirts of the two cities, the efforts could not go unnoticed especially in Lobatse where 450 hectares of land had been reserved for mixed-use while Palapye had 440 hectares of land reserved for integrated agriculture and agro-processing.

Other areas included SSKIA where the minister said 885 hectares had been reserved for mixed-use, including Francistown with 700 hectares of land reserved for mixed-use and Selebi Phikwe with 1 220 hectares reserved for Mixed-Use.

Minister Mzwinila said once fully developed, it was envisaged that the special economic zones would go a long way in creating employment in those areas.

Thamaga/Kumakwane MP Mr Palelo Motaosane had asked the minister if there were plans to address the infrastructure development in the areas in the outskirts of the cities of Gaborone and Francistown to help facilitate industrialisation and consequently create jobs and minimise migration into cities.

He also wanted to know whether villages such as Mmopane, Metsimotlhabe, Gaphatshwa, Kopong, Gakutlo, Matseta and others had been planned for any development. ends