22 Mar 2023

The Southern District Council (SDC) is at an advanced stage of decentralisation, says chairperson, Mr Sonny Phiri.

Giving opening remarks at a SDC eight-day meeting this week, Mr Phiri said it was the last session as other new districts would be joining Good Hope District to which will be a full district councils.

Mr Phiri said decentralisation would improve efficiency, be cost effective and bring services closer to people.

He also noted that the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development had been allocated the fourth largest share of the recurrent budget due to the associated costs of establishing new districts. He said phase one of the decentralisation exercise saw Good Hope being upgraded to a fully-fledged district council in January, and that they were left with three sub districts of Mabutsane, Kanye and Moshupa, adding that they would be upgraded in the second phase that would effect from April 2023.

Mr Phiri also told councillors that the recurrent and development budgets for the 2023/24 financial year were not consolidated and were prepared and presented as individual district councils.

The council chairperson also informed councillors that a report of council assets and liabilities would be presented during the session. He added that they had deliberated on shared resources and those which were based at the head quarters.

He said the District Development Plan 9 had been suspended until 2025 in order to align it to the electoral cycle. “We shall in the interim operate with a Transitional National Development Plan for a period of two years," he said. He added that since the 2023/2024 budget would be the first year of the transitional plan, budget allocations had been aligned and were reflective of the policy pronouncements, projects, programmes as well as national priorities as set out in the Reset Agenda.

He said the plan would deliver broad based transformation, create new wealth prospects and expand economic opportunities for communities.

With regard to the development budget, he said developing infrastructure, promoting sustainable livelihoods, local economic development as well as environmentally sustainability projects were still key priorities.

He also said the proposed funding for 2023/24 had gone beyond the usual projects and programmes to include construction and operationalisation of group structures; consultancy services for the construction of new primary schools in Moshupa and Kanye, the construction of a new primary school at Kgwakgwe in Kanye, the procurement of landfill equipment for Kanye together with consultancy services for roads design in Kanye and Mabutsane.

He added that the budget would also include the implementation of the primary school backlog eradication programme, the maintenance of primary school facilities and the procurement of furniture and equipment for reception classes.

He noted that the Kanye District Council had been allocated over P50 million while Moshupa District Council was allocated over P35 million and Mabutsane District Council P39 million for their projects and that pre-tender activities for all the projects were underway.

Mr Phiri also noted that since the 2021/22 financial year the district council had managed to construct two primary schools in Kanye and Sese.

“Under the Economic Recovery and Transformation Programme (ERTP), the district was funded to the tune of P20.6 million and P30 million for the primary school backlog eradication. A good number of these projects have been successfully delivered and those which are still ongoing are planned to be completed before the end of this financial year,” he said. He said secondary schools cyclic maintenance, construction of classrooms and science laboratories and the provision of pre-fabricated classrooms across schools in the district had also been done.

He added that the construction of 20 staff houses at Mogale Junior School was ongoing and that the project was funded with P60 million, but that an extra P10 million was required because the scope of works was changed.

He said other projects included technology-enhanced learning for teachers in senior secondary schools and education officers, the maintenance of tribal facilities as well as district and internal roads and the construction of a community stadium. ends