19 Feb 2020

Chobe District Housing Committee will have to work overtime to address challenges faced by civil servants who reside in institutional and pool houses from Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC).

Speaking during a central government heads of department meeting on Tuesday, the civil servants said most of the houses they live in are dilapidated, needing major and urgent maintenance.

Some of the houses, they claimed, smell because they are infested with bats and other creatures, while none collection of refuse was also the order of the day.

They further complained that it took long for the houses to be maintained by the relevant authorities and that something needs to be done with houses that remain unoccupied for long periods of time, especially the 39 at White City location.

The public officers also advised the housing committee to respond timeously to the tenants’ complaints on minor maintenance, whilst major maintenance can be attended to later.

They said Kasane, which is the destination of choice for international tourists, looks unwelcoming because of litter scattered by roaming baboons and warthogs, which have turned their houses into their homes.

They suggested that because Kasane’s case is unique, government should provide animal proof dustbins as a permanent solution to the problem, which has existed for many years.

Their complaints followed a presentation by the chairperson of the committee, Ms Tuelo Gothaang, who said the committee was inundated with challenges, some being the ones they raised.

She said some of the challenges include failure or delay to vacate pool houses after being transferred, vandalism and negligence as well as sharing disputes.

Ms Gothaang said there was also the problem of occupation of government houses under false pretenses, with some officers staying in pool houses when they have developed residential properties within the Kasane planning area.

She explained that some officers went to the extent of subletting government pool houses, coupled with none payment of water bills during vacation.

There is also poor housekeeping of the houses, none payment of refuse collection fees by those who reside in government pool houses, as well as too many accommodation requests, she said.

She said BHC had engaged a private company for the maintenance of pool houses, while maintenance of government houses was done by either the office of the district commissioner or Department of Housing.

However, Ms Gothaang explained that the challenge in maintenance was due to lack or delay in allocation of funds, which eventually ends up making the house even worse.

She also told the meeting that the 39 unoccupied houses at White City would not be maintained, as they would be demolished to pave way for the Kasane-Kazungula Development Plan.

“Because of this project, major maintenance of the affected houses has since been stopped and as such, this continues to hit us more on the already scarce accommodation,” she added. Chobe District has 253 units, comprising of 74 government houses and 179 BHC houses.

From the figure, 147 are none sharing accommodation, while 106 are for sharing.

Meanwhile, Chobe District commissioner, Ms Sekgabo Makgosa had advised HoDs to constantly communicate their departmental problems with her office so that they could be attended to on time.

She also advised departments to notify her office about their events to avoid clashes with scheduled meetings. ENDS