08 Sep 2022

Jwaneng Town Council (JTC) is reportedly so broke, it cannot even provide basic services such as waste collection.

Speaking in an interview, Jwaneng mayor, Ms Olga Ditsie made an emotional appeal to those that owed the council to pay, to enable it to sustain its services.

She said the council was owed mostly in rates, building material loans, service levies and market stall rentals by members of the community, business operators, parastatals and government entities.

The mayor said failure to pay the council its dues had landed it so heavily in debt that it was crippled to offer basic services.

“According to our records, the council is owed over P27 million. 

Of this amount about P15 million is owed in rates, close to P9 million to building material loans, over P 900 000 to market stalls rented out around town, while over P700 000 is service levy overdues,” she said.

Ms Ditsie said the council was also owed for advertising signs and sanitation services.

She said the council had resorted to a debt collection initiative dubbed Mabogo Dinku Campaign, which she recently launched on national television to encourage residents, companies, parastatals and government entities to pay the council and enable it to deliver services.

Decrying the dire situation the council is in, the mayor said failure to render services should neither be misconstrued to be a result of employees not willing to work nor failure by the leadership, stressing that it was solely because of failure to pay by those who owed it. 

She lamented that the council could no longer afford to maintain waste collection vehicles when they broke down, let alone fuel them.

Ms Ditsie said members of the community alone owed the council about P16 million in rates and service levies, which she said if paid, could be enough to maintain the dilapidated infrastructure.

“Our roads are rundown, our streets are dark, our public facilities and schools are broken down just to mention a few. 

We need this money to refurbish our town,” she explained.

Ms Ditsie said that being alive to economic hardships, the council had come up with a flexible payment plan as well as evict occupants who were defaulting on rentals for council stalls, to make way for those willing and able to pay. Ends