26 May 2021

Selebi Phikwe Town Council (SPTC) is in the process of mobilising various groups within the community for them to engage in viable projects that can alleviate the effects of poverty.

Addressing the full council meeting on Tuesday, SPTC Mayor Mr Lucas Modimana said different projects were at different stages of development.

He said the mushroom harvesting was expected to be done end of May and the harvest would be taken to the National Food Laboratory for quality check.

He informed councillors that the beneficiaries who were former BCL workers managed to register a company called Phikwe Mushroom and had opened a business account for the company.

He further informed councillors that the process of developing a Local Economic Development (LED) framework had already commenced in Selebi Phikwe.

“This strategy also acknowledges that building local economies had a strong link to the COVID-19 economic recovery process and the economic transformation,” he said.

Once completed, he said the town’s response to current developmental challenges would be prompt and relevant.

Regarding the economic status of the town, Mr Modimana said COVID-19 had impacted both the local and national economies as most of the funds were now channelled towards the pandemic interventions as opposed to planned development initiatives envisaged before the advent of the scourge.

He said this had led to some programmes being postponed, notably the Constituency Community Programme and maintenance of some facilities.

He said only Ipelegeng and roads levy programmes were funded to the tune of P864 000 and P8.5m respectively.

To augment the current budgetary constraints, he said Selebi Phikwe had taken robust measures aimed at improving the collection of revenue, adding that a private company called Collection Africa had been engaged by the council to collect arrears of revenue. 

“This measure has significantly improved collection of revenue so far,” he said.

He further informed councillors that the government had embarked on an initiative to avail market access opportunities for producers in various regions countrywide, adding that this would stimulate local production, increase import substitution, create employment and grow the economy.

The initiative, headed by the Local Enterprise Agency (LEA), he said, was also aimed at creating a Local Procurement Reservation Supplier Database that would be used by all government and state-owned entities including parastatal organisations to procure locally produced goods and services.

He encouraged Small Medium and Micro Enterprises to continue registering for the Local Procurement Supplier Database, to allow procuring entities to know local suppliers at district, regional and national levels. Ends