28 Jun 2023

The Gaborone City Council is faced with challenges of revenue collection which have led serious cash flow problems, city mayor, Mr Austin Abraham has said.

Mr Abraham said this when he addressed a full council meeting on Monday.

“The challenge has led to serious cash flow problems since oftentimes expenditure exceeds income. Due to lack of funding, we ended up unable to deliver on some activities that had been fore planned,” he said.

He implored the council’s finance and general purpose committee to formulate and implement strategies that would increase the revenue base and accelerate collection.

“We will continue monitoring expenditure and revenue collection through structures such as the finance and general purpose committee and we will focus on major components of the recurrent budget such as property rates, advertising signs, ground leases and parking fees,” he said.

He added that rates contributed to 25 per cent of the council’s recurrent budget and if collected, they could contribute significantly to the development of the city.

Further, he said, the total collection stood at P77 million, which translated to 17 per cent of the council’s budget.

As such, he pleaded with the Gaborone community to pay for property rates and service levies.

The Mayor also updated the council on the reported 41 cases of child abuse, defilement and negligence, among others.

He pleaded with the public to refrain from such acts, urging them to make it a habit to report such issues so that appropriate action would be taken against perpetrators.

He further appealed to the leaders to advocate the rights of children and child protection in various forums.

Again, he indicated that there were 11 ongoing cases of children in need of protection, which involved placement of children in places of safety away from their abusers.

He lamented that child abuse and disregard for children’s rights was a serious indictment on the society.

“What happened to our social values that safeguard the wellbeing of our children regardless of their status?” he asked.

On one hand, he said, the council had commemorated Day of the African Child through various activities, including:  art, drawing and spelling, bee competitions. ENDS