12 Jul 2020

The Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Development, Mr Mmusi Kgafela, has expressed satisfaction with projects in Maun.

He toured projects that included Ministry of Health and Wellness staff houses, centre for children with severe and multiple disabilities, old Maun hospital refurbishment and Ombudsman office block. Mr Kgafela said it was pleasing that all the contractors had promised to complete projects as agreed.

He said contractors had an obligation to deliver projects on time as well as strive for a good record.

The projects, Mr Kgafela said, would give Maun a facelift and also benefit communities.

Although he appreciated that some of the projects had been delayed, he acknowledged that the contractors had committed to hand them over before end of the year.

Mr Kgafela acknowledged that in all the projects, the contractors hired Batswana and procurred materials locally.

Old Maun general hospital project, awarded to Net Builders Construction to the tune of P66 million, started in July 2017 and was expected to be completed in 2018. The facility would be a 24-hour referral hospital.

Health staff houses project was awarded to Katlego Investment to the tune of P24 million and it was supposed to have been completed in May 2017 and the issues of consultancy and slowness by the contractor were cited as cause of the delay.

The project comprised 18 units of houses, two double storey buildings and six LA3 houses.

The project director, Mr Victor Motobake admitted that the health staff houses project was delayed because of an issue on design as well as disagreement between the contractor and the consultants.

Despite the challenges, Mr Motobake said the project was still within budget.

The contractor engaged for Old Maun hospital project, Mr Edward Tlotlego, said the project was behind schedule due to the delay from government to appoint an electrical sub-contractor.

He also indicated that since the buildings were dilapidated, they had to do reconstruction instead of refurbishing.

In addition, Mr Tlotleng decried theft at the site, saying the perpetrators took advantage of the extreme social distancing period to steal electrical cables amounting to P500 000.

Currently, he said the project status was 86 per cent and promised to deliver it before end of the year. Ends