19 Mar 2020

Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Development, Mr Mmusi Kgafela has asked Parliament to approve a total of P781m for 2020/21 financial year.

In his presentation of the budget proposals, Mr Kgafela said  P504.5m was for recurrent budget and P276.6m was development budget.

Talking about the development budget, the minister said the bulk of the funds would be utilised for maintenance of secondary schools and funding the housing schemes that promote citizens home ownership.

Mr Kgafela said P205 million of the development budget would be spent on infrastructure development and the remaining amount would be spent on social and affordable housing programmes.

He informed Parliament that construction of police station and staff housing in Mmathubudukwane had been completed and was handed over in 2019.

The remaining projects, Semolale and Maitengwe Police Stations and staff houses, Shakawe Primary Hospital and Botswana Police Services Forensic Laboratory are expected to be completed during the next financial year.

The minister said government was also refurbishing Letlhakane, Ghanzi and Francistown Senior Secondary Schools which were expected to be completed by 2020/21 financial year.

He said refurbishment of Moeng College had been delayed as the girl’s hostel was to be renovated but after assessment, it was discovered that it had to be replaced.

Mr Kgafela said construction of Moshupa Primary School had started and expected to be completed in the 2021/22 financial year. He said out of the 169 houses constructed for the Ministry of Health and Wellness, 77 had been completed and 92 were at different stage of construction.

The minister said the project had been delayed by several factors amongst them poor contract, financial and project management skills of contractors who were awarded the works.

He said since the beginning of the National Development Plan (NDP) 11, about 965 housing units had been completed out of 1 972 units funded under the Self Help Housing Agency (SHHA) Turnkey programme.

A further 917 projects undertaken through the SHHA home improvement component were successfully implemented since the beginning of NDP 11 while 673 are at different stages of construction.

Minister Mmusi said the Installment Purchase Scheme had delivered 636 units against the planned 750 units in Gaborone.

He said the remaining 114 units were to be built in Gaborone Block 7, adding that due to constraints around raising funds from the market, the units were sold for cash with a view to rollout the scheme to other areas.

The minister said the units are sold only to Batswana and said 372 units had been offered to the youth, showing that the government was committed to empowering the youth through home ownership.

Minister Mmusi said 119 units had been delivered against the planned 634 housing units under the Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) and the remaining 515 units would be delivered by end of the month. He said 236 units had been sold to Batswana and majority citizen owned companies.

Public Officers at D4 scale and below also have a housing scheme which has completed 396 turnkey projects since the beginning of the project in 2016.

Talking about the home improvement component, he said 553 projects had been funded and 354 were complete while 119 were at different stages of construction and 80 had not yet started.

The BHC has delivered 465 units under the Public Officers Housing Initiative (POHI).

He said the programmes needed to be augmented as the Botswana Demographic Survey of 2017 showed that proportion of households that were inadequately housed, stood at 39 per cent as opposed to the 25 per cent projected at the beginning of 2011.

He said his ministry was looking into other programmes including the review of the National Policy on Housing, densification and high-density housing for the low-income group.

Minister Mmusi said his ministry had engaged youth companies under the 15 per cent maintenance reservation programme.

As at December 2019, 17 youth owned construction companies have been awarded maintenance projects worth above P20m and have created 370 jobs.

The ministry keeps a data base for youth owned companies and the private sector has engaged six youth owned companies at the tune of P31.4m creating 587 jobs. Ends