02 Jun 2025

Despite the tough economic outlook and current financial landscape, the Tlokweng District Council is pleased with the progress of its village infrastructure projects.

Tlokweng District Council chairperson, Ms Ontiretse Bogatsu expressed this during a full council session in Tlokweng, yesterday.

Providing a project implementation update, Ms Bogatsu said the Tlokweng 25km internal roads project was progressing well, currently at 93 per cent completion ahead of the planned 92 per cent.

“It should be noted that the contractor's key resources including personnel and machinery and the consultant supervising the project on behalf of council are still on site. Notably, the project has an electrical works package which entails installation of 695 solar lights of which 473 solar light have been installed along the newly constructed roads,” she informed the meeting.

Ms Bogatsu said the project was currently at 70 per cent against the planned 83 per cent of completion and a catch up plan had been drawn to ensure successful delivery of the project.

She said the construction of Tlokweng Recreational Park facilities, conference and landscaping were completed in March.

Ms Bogatsu said the project was currently on defects liability period for 12 months from time of completion and despite the delayed delivery, the project was delivered to good quality and within budget.

She added that the much anticipated community project was ready for occupation and use and that it was vital that the operationalisation of the facility was fast tracked so that the community could reap its benefits.

Regarding the transfer of primary healthcare from the Ministry of Health to that of local government, Ms Bogatsu said the health care facilities were in extremely bad state and required major maintenance.

She said an assessment conducted in March revealed that over P8 million was required to upgrade all health facilities in the district to an acceptable standard.

“However, the district is expected to receive only P1 850 000 from the Ministry of Health for this purpose. This significant shortfall places increased pressure on the council as maintenance requests continue to rise, yet the allocated budget remains insufficient to adequately address the growing needs of our primary healthcare infrastructure,” she added.

Ms Bogatsu said in order to facilitate the Bonno Housing initiative, Tlokweng Land Board had resolved to submit 147 plots in Ranfurwa, which were conditionally approved subject to provision of storm water drainage with reservation that the private sector developers would address the storm water condition.

She said in addition to these plots, the land board submitted two additional pieces of land, which were a 2.4ha plot at Ranfurwa Ward and 2.78 ha at Masetlheng Ward.

She further informed councillors that the Tlokweng Land Board had completed the assessment of properties in the Sefoke area, with 43 out of 80 valuation reports finalised and amounted to P7.2million.

She said the board had prepared and submitted a project memorandum to secure further funding from the Ministry of Finance.

Ms Bogatsu explained that the board had received an amount of P4.1million in January this year to acquire land amounting to about 10ha within the village boundary aimed at facilitating further village expansion. ENDS