12 Jan 2021

Chobe MP, Mr Machana Shamukuni, has implored heads of departments to work as a team to ensure service delivery.

Speaking in a consultative meeting with the leaders in the district on Monday, Mr Shamukuni said it was important for all departments and parastatals not to work in silos, but share skills since they were working for one government.

He raised a concern about the 2017/18 projects that were still not completed, adding that he feared that the district would not be able to convince government to fund other projects if it failed to utilise allocated funds.

Mr Shamukuni said this following a report that implementation of some projects was delayed due to lack of skilled manpower.

The council’s principal economist, Ms Tshoganetso Zilwa, informed the meeting that P10 million meant for construction of the Kasane mini-stadium had been received.

Therefore, evaluation and award of tenders for geo-tech investigations, design of sewer line and irrigation system were completed while contract signing was expected to be done this week.

Ms Zilwa said the works were planned to take 60 days after which structural drawings would be prepared and invitation to tender documents for construction thereof to be floated.

On the Kasane-Kazungula redevelopment plan projects, Ms Zilwa said design of the phase one of the new Kasane potable water treatment plant was on-going. 

She explained that the site was handed to the contractor in August last year and expected to run for 33 months.

She said the works comprised of the river intake pump station, raw water pipe line to the plant, the treatment plant and the treated water reservoir.

Ms Zilwa said the phase two of the project was awarded in December and comprised of treated water pump station and associated works.

Still on the on-going projects, Ms Zilwa said the re-gravelling and culvert installation of Kachikau-Parakarungu road was on-going at 81 per cent and the contractor was behind schedule having completed 13kilomtres of the 16kiloomtres and eight out of ten culverts. 

She said the project was expected to be completed in October last year but it is anticipated to be completed in March this year.

She explained that the reasons for the time overruns were late start of actual works due to delays in allocation of burrow pit, COVID-19 restrictions and regulations, flooding of the Kachikau-Satau road and lack of quality material in the district but as mitigation measures the contract added more plant and equipment to speed up work.

On the status of land allocation, Ms Zilwa said the Chobe Land board approved detailed layouts for Parakarungu, Mabele and Kazungula with 474, 274 and 1184 assorted plots respectively for each village. 

She indicated that the waiting lists were 10 722 for Kazungula, 6525 for Lesoma, 2423 for Pandamatenga, 939 for Mabele, 497 for Kavimba, 792 for Kachikau, 264 for Satau and 73 for Parakarungu.

On Constituency Community projects, chief social and community development officer, Mr Ogoditsemang Seleme said of the 14 projects of 2017/18 financial year 12 were completed and two were between 77-86 per cent complete while six out of 11 for the 2018/19 were at various stages between 10-60 per cent and one has not yet started due to shortage of funds. 

Mr Seleme said for the 2019/20 financial year only one project was completed and seven were between 43-95 per cent while three have not yet commenced. 

He said of the three that have not started two were due to manpower capacity constraints. 

He explained that the purchase of the porta cabins at Chobe and Liswaani I were delayed by manpower challenges.

For his part the acting district agricultural officer, Dr Bernard Mbeha reported that the district did not get open pollinated seeds for ISPAAD beneficiaries as suppliers of the seeds indicated that it was not commercially viable for them to supply Chobe with the 2.4 tonnes.

He however, said the ISPAAD beneficiaries were instead supplied with hybrid seeds for the four hectares instead of supplying open pollinated for two hectares and hybrid for the other two hectares. 

Dr Mbeha further said a total of 1600 hectares were ploughed by both the commercial and subsistence farmers adding that this was more than last year.

He lamented that the African migratory locust was still a challenge adding that this year the locusts were identified in Parakarungu, Dr Mbeha however indicated that control teams were still on site and people should continue reporting any colonies they identify.  Ends