08 Mar 2023

Kgatleng District councillors have rejected the proposed high impact road projects for Mochudi East and Mochudi West planned for uptake under the Constituency Community Projects (CCP) during the 2023/2024 financial year. 

Councillors expressed during a special full council meeting recently that consultations on the planned road projects were not extensively carried out.

Some of the councillors said the proposed road projects did not cover their areas, hence they could not support them, while others said the proposed priority projects were not recent.

“We want CCP funds to benefit all the wards. We want moneyto  be shared by all wards,” said Cllr for Mosomane, Tshepo Ruele, while Cllr Basiki Lebekwe of Moshawana said there was backlog of projects that were carried out through CCP, which he suggested should be finished first, before considering new ideas.

Cllr Daniel Molokwe of Rasesa  said the council deserved to contribute to consultations without necessarily endorsing what was agreed by lower structures. Earlier on, Kgatleng District Council Principal economist, Ms Maemo Kaisara informed councillors that it was proposed that each constituency carry out only one high impact road paving project during the 2023/24  financial year,.

She said the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development had advised that CCP funds be used for  road development projects in order to facilitate ease of doing business in the selected localities.

Ms Kaisara said the CCP programme was one such initiative that could be used to develop constituencies and connect villages seamlessly. She stated that opting for one high impact project per constituency was not necessarily stopping other developments, as they could be undertaken through other funds, such as the road levy and development budget.

She said during consultations with village development committees (VDCs), the two constituencies ended up agreeing that one high priority project would delay developments of other villages that were not covered, hence they reasoned that they should continue carrying out ward projects as opposed to a single constituency project.

Other reservations were that developments might end up being skewed in favour of big villages, while other VDCs reasoned that villages had unique needs, and therefore one big constituency project might not address each village’s needs.

Ms Kaisara said in Mochudi East, the Oodi meeting resulted in all wards choosing and agreeing on one project, except for Dikwididi, which was absent from the meeting, but indicated during their separate consultation that they were not in agreement with having one constituency project.

“They advised that they would rather have a single project as the Dikwididi/Mokatse/Modipane ward, but not a constituency project,” she said. In Mochudi West, she said, wards inclusive of Kgomodiatshaba/Dikgonnye agreed on one project in conformity with the advice given by the District Development Committee (DDC) team.

Kgatleng District Council Secretary, Ms Boikhutso Matenge advised councillors that while the report captured all the suggestions from consultation meetings with lower structures, it was not necessarily treated as final because their resolutions would form part of what would be presented to the two MPs of Mochudi East and West.

Kgatleng District Commissioner, Ms Kolobetso Sejakgomo advised councillors not to distance themselves from what was discussed with lower structures because they were ex-officio members of such.

“It will not help us in future to overrule what was agreed by morafe, whereas you should have been part of those consultations. This clearly shows that something is not well,” she stressed. ENDS