30 Aug 2023

Adapting to a new mindset has the potential to unlock socio-economic opportunities that could catapult Botswana into attaining a high income status, the Mayor of Jwaneng, Ms Olga Ditsie, has said.

Addressing a full council meeting on Tuesday, she underscored the need to have clear strategies that resonated with the national mind-set change campaign and contributed towards improved service delivery to the communities.

“Our campaign to deliver improved services to our communities and to empower our people rests on how quickly we adapt to a new mind set and can come up with clear strategies to drive that,” said Ms Olga Ditsie.

She implored the district leadership to actively play a role in supporting efforts geared towards improving service delivery.

She noted that collective efforts could promote ownership of district projects and services and also contribute towards local economic empowerment.

Ms Ditsie appealed to stakeholders to ensure that delayed community projects were completed for their intended purpose to the people of Jwaneng.

She regretted that the council had spent less on the recurrent budget as compared to their target in the current financial year, owing to late procurement by various departments.

She explained that out of a total budget of P111 063 700, which is made up of own source of income budget of P13 834 700 and P97 287 344 being Revenue Support Grant, expenditure to date stands at P31 941 088.35 against the set target of P37 040 543.32.

As a result, she appealed to procuring entities to devise plans to catch up with the spending target to avoid having unspent votes and denying the Jwaneng community to benefit from the services.

She said despite efforts to intensify revenue collection mechanisms, the council had only managed to achieve 52 per cent from rates and own revenue generation. She noted that

cemetery fees, dog licences, home economics, lease rentals and market rent among others, were some of the votes lagging behind in revenue collection.
Poor revenue collection had a negative impact on effective service delivery, hence the council had embarked on house to house campaigns to encourage residents to pay for services.

“Although the council has constantly sent reminders, customers continue to be unresponsive to paying for services offered to them. This impacts negatively on our efforts to offer quality services as revenue collected forms part of the budget,” she said.

Ms Ditsie said following the frequent breakdown of the refuse collection fleet, the council had outsourced waste collection services to the private sector. Tenders for the residential areas were expected to be awarded next month, while a tender for waste collection at the mall had been awarded and would commence on September 1.

The tender for street lighting material had been awarded to two companies and they were expected to complete the delivery process by the first week of September.

Responding to the mayor’s address,  Raphalane ward’s Cllr Lebogang Peloyamotho said pro-longed shortage of street lights and overgrown vegetation compromised the safety of residents around the township. He said overgrown trees have created a haven for crime, hence the need for action before the rainy season starts. Ends