24 Mar 2022

Lobatse Town Council (LTC) has been urged to be frugal in their spending and implementation of projects within approved budgets in the 2022/23 financial year.

Addressing a full council meeting on Tuesday March 22, Lobatse mayor Mr Essop Pandor said Lobatse council  would be operating under a tighter budget during the 2022/23 financial year compared to the 2021/22 year, due to reduction in the Revenue Support Grant (RSG) from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.

“The economy has not fully recovered from the impact of COVID-19 and this has led to our RSG being reduced. For 2022/23 financial year, our Council has been allocated RSG ceiling of P102 689 950 which is 1.4 per  cent less compared to the 2021/22 financial year budget of P104 172 740,” he said.

He also urged the council to improve its revenue collection performance, pointing that it was not satisfactory.

On development projects in the town, Mr Pandor stated that negotiations were ongoing between Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) and its technical partner for the Milk Afric dairy project. 

He said the two parties were pushing to have developments for Phase 1 completed in May.

“BDC and Milk Afric have drafted a milking plan which entails the completion of all outstanding developments to get the facility ready to receive cows and start production. The remaining developments include construction of a calf handling facility, special needs facility, feed bunker, augmentation of water sources, a facility for dry cows and development of irrigation land on site,” he said.

He however said the continued ban on importation of dairy cows from South Africa due to the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak was still a hindrance to the commencement of production. 

He therefore said BDC was also exploring other markets for procurement of dairy cattle.

On resuscitation of Lobatse Clay Works, Mr Pandor said the turnaround plan and funding proposal were approved in February, and plant refurbishment and process of preparing the business for operations would take 12-14 months. 

He said the business, expected to create 141 jobs when operational,  was expected to have a positive social-economic impact in Lobatse and the country in general.

The mayor further said the restructuring of Delta Automotive Technologies (formerly PASDEC) was also completed.

“The restructuring saw BDC convert some of its facilities for a 60 per cent equity stake in Delta and further invested P50 million that went towards refinancing some of the Company’s debt facilities. The Corporation now is working with Delta to improve its governance and operational efficiencies,” he said.

Regarding the Leather Park project, Mr Pandor said it was awaiting the ministerial resolution on the project governance structure, which was key in the overall-forward movement of the project. He however said all other sub-projects relating to the main project were on-going.

He further said LTC would carry out a phased implementation of the Peleng River reclamation project through the Community Constituency Programme (CCP) in the 2022/23 financial year. 

He said the first phase would cost P9.45 million. He said the remaining P550 000 from the CCP funds would be utilised to complete Kgodisong day care center. 

Meanwhile the mayor congratulated Itireleng Junior Secondary School for outshining other schools in the area and obtaining a 60 per cent ABC pass rate, which made the school number 1 in the whole of Southern region, and number 10 nationally.

“However, while we celebrate Itireleng JSS achievement, may I note that the results of our other three junior schools simply indicate an overall low performance,” he said. Ends