15 Dec 2021

Construction of a change room block, one of the various components planned for Tsabong mini stadium commenced on December 2.

Kgalagadi District Council chairperson Mr Hendrick Jacobs informed a full council meeting  on Tuesday that construction of Tsabong Mini stadium, which is one of the high impact, capital intensive projects spearheaded by council was progressing well although not at the expected pace.

The ablution and kiosk blocks were almost complete as the two contractors were working on finishing touches and site clearing, he added.

Construction of change room block was anticipated to be completed by March 24, 2022 while the tender award for the stadium boundary wall was still under litigation.

In an interview, one of the contracted companies Desert Dollar Mark  operation manager, Mr Sternly Gababine said they were awarded tender of a kiosk which they started in June and the project was almost complete.

He said the project should have been completed in August 2021 but due to COVID-19, sourcing of building material from as far as Gaborone and additional works caused project delays.

“The challenge is that we sourced some of the building materials from Gaborone as most were unavailable. If they were available they were way too expensive compared to when we sourced them from outside,” he said.

Mr Gababine said the company, which had employed 20 young people from Hukuntsi and Tsabong, supported local hardware stores and they bought bricks from the Maubelo poverty eradication project.

One of the challenges that they faced, he said, was that they were not paid on time, hence they ended up having to source material on credit and therefore they could not enjoy the benefits of discounts that come with buying on cash. Thus he called for payments to be credited timely to empower locals.

On other projects run by the council in the district, the chairperson said construction of both destitute and RADP houses in financial year 2021-2022 had not yet commenced due to delay in disbursement of funds. Nonetheless, preparations were underway to engage builders to make up for the lost time.

Regarding primary schools backlog eradication, he said progress for construction of the proposed classroom block at Kang Primary School was at 45 per cent against the targeted 85 per cent. This, he said, was due to poor project management by the contractor as the project was expected to be completed by December 09 and the contractor had applied for extension of the contract period.

Meanwhile, he said, the 2020/2021 financial year maintenance of primary school facilities programme had been completed, adding that all three primary schools which were funded such as Inalegolo, Hunhukwe and Sam Mackenzie, had been successfully maintained and handed over to the council.

Under the current financial year, a proposal was made to undertake major maintenance of seven schools in Kgalagadi being; Phuduhudu, Makgakgane, Lokgwabe, Ikaneng, Kolonkwaneng, Kokotsha and Bogogobo primary schools but maintenance projects had not yet commenced due to delays in releasing of funds. Ends