13 Jan 2021

Acting Francistown town clerk, Mr Lawrence Mazinyane, says funds permitting, a 200-metre foot-bridge will be constructed between Somerset Extension and Block 2 locations in the city.

Briefing the Minister of Environment, Natural Resource Conservation and Tourism, Ms Phildah Kereng, on Tuesday, Mr Mazinyane said the bridge would be convenient for the residents of the two wards whom he said periodically crossed Tati-river to the other side to access services.

He said already the city council had engaged a company to do environmental impact survey.

The acting town clerk stated, however, that COVID-19 had delayed preliminary design of the bridge.

He anticipated the design to be completed by April 14 this year adding that the submission of the design will determine the construction period.

Minister Phildah Kereng said the overall budget for the bridge would be arrived at once the survey, the design report and the scope of work were done.

She also urged residents to consider utilising available space around the proposed site to set up projects such as picnic spots, restaurants, tourists’ sites, shopping malls, sports fields as well as photographic areas which could assist spin money for the community.

For his part, Member of Parliament for Francistown South, Mr Wynter Mmolotsi urged all stakeholders not to work in silos, but to collaborate their efforts to make sure the planned bridge was a success.

“We need a long term approach to development,” he said, adding that the bridge should be constructed such that it will be useful and robust even in the next 30 years.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resource Conservation and Tourism, Dr Oduetse Koboto, said the role of the ministry was to identify how far the plots were from the proposed site and devise modalities of compensation to people who would be affected by the development. Ends