25 Feb 2021

Selebi Phikwe Town Council (SPTC) has kick-started an oyster mushrooms project in the town.

Addressing a full council meeting on Tuesday, SPTC mayor, Mr Lucas Modimana said the project was a strategy to combat the effects of COVID-19 on the local economy.

Mr Modimana informed councillors that the council was maintaining and equipping two structures at Phase One and Phase Two for the production of the mushrooms.

He said 10 ex-BCL miners had been mobilised to run the project and that they had registered a company.

Furthermore, he said the town was also in the process of starting a Tswana chicken production project. He added that it would be managed by ward development committee members in Selebi Phikwe West constituency.

“The council is still soliciting funding from other development partners in town to facilitate the project,” he said.

The mayor said the local authority had taken a decision to unbundle maintenance projects and to allocate them to artisans, as opposed to contractors, to ensure that citizens benefitted from the allocated budget.

“This method is coming across as an efficient and cost effective way of project delivery,” he said. He revealed that they planned to put the abattoir and other facilities back on service through the initiativeMr Modimana also said the projected deficit of the 2021/22 budget was an indication that both the recurrent and development budgets would be affected.

He called on the local authority to improve its income generation from own sources, adding that SPTC had already intensified debt collection measures.

He said 2 341 debtors owing P13.6 million had been sent demand letters and that a fraction of them were sent to Collection Africa on 4 February 2021.

He said the results looked promising, adding “we would continue to pursue those that are indebted to SPTC.”

Regarding poverty eradication, Mr Modimana said programmes that were geared towards socio-economic empowerment such as poverty eradication, continued to help in the creation of jobs.

He said a 23 hectare plot at Botshabelo had been availed to the office of the district commissioner to be used for horticultural farming and other related agricultural activities.

The land, he said, was to be used by poverty eradication beneficiaries who wished to venture into horticultural farming.ENDS