29 Jul 2020

Gaborone was close to being labelled the most dangerous city to drive in, mostly at traffic intersections, hence the need for major transformation.

Speaking at the Gaborone City full council meeting on July 27, the mayor, Mr Father Maphongo said the city had taken several measures to change not only physically, but also in terms of its landscape and its road network.

He said the city’s traffic lights in different intersections were now being installed with traffic signalling systems with a provision of Centralised Traffic Control (CTC) to the tune of P349 million and the project commenced in November 2017.

Mr Maphongo said the installation works on 22 intersections had been completed as at April this year before the interruption of the extreme social distancing period due to COVID-19, which was from April 2 to May 21.

The mayor said subsequently three were commissioned recently bringing the total to 25 and said work was ongoing on the remaining 19 intersections and seven were to be commissioned by the end of this month.

He said the construction of the CTC building started during the second week of January and the foundation works had been completed while the construction work was ongoing. Currently progress stands at 30 per cent against the 35 per cent planned.

Onother developmental project, Mr Maphongo said, was the grade separation of the three intersections along KT Motsete Drive at Rainbow, Btv and Game City roundabouts. He said the project, which was being done by the Ministry of Transport and Communications in partnership with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, was to address the rapid and unrestrained increase in the number of vehicles and inadequate transport infrastructure development in the greater Gaborone.

Mr Maphongo said the project commenced in January 2019 with a duration of 36 months up to December 2022 and the actual construction started in January this year. However, construction ceased at all three sites from April 2 to May 21 following the extreme social distancing period.

On the issue of street lighting, the mayor said the city council operated and maintained an estimated 25 000 street lights across the city along both internal and major roads.

He said the street lights along internal roads were mostly on wooden poles while along major roads the poles were made of steel, saying the majority of the street lights infrastructure had way passed their life span thus needing replacement.

Mr Maphongo said some of the challenges, which included old infrastructure, were particularly in residential areas including Extension 4, Babusi, Moselewapula, Gaborone West Phase 1, Extensions 16, 20 and 26 Tawana, Taung, Ledumang, Tsholofelo, Phakalane and others.

He said street and traffic lights poles were prone to being knocked down by motorists, especially  during month ends.

Mr Maphongo said other disturbing factors were damages caused by developers when they carried out their project, saying they, however, never report the damages while theft of components such as cables and other commodities were becoming rampant.

The Mayor appealed to councillors to encourage their constituents to guard against any theft and vandalism of the street lights as they were meant to combat the escalating crime in the city. ENDS