11 Jun 2025

Reconstruction of the 200-kilometre Francistown-Nata A3 road, which is being implemented through the Development Manager Model of Okavango Africa Consortium, is said to be at 15 per cent progress status against the planned 19 per cent.

Briefing the Assistant Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Mr Keoagile Atamelang on June 9, resident engineer Mr Phemelo Mpowe explained that they were almost 4 per cent behind schedule because of the heavy rains that were experienced from the time they started the project last year November until February this year. He said there were some days in which they did not manage to do any work on the project because of rain.

However, he said they were working to cover up for lost time noting that the 4 per cent they were behind with translated to about 30 days of work, which they needed to cover up and they had increased their manpower as well as machinery in order to reach target. He asserted that the project was scheduled for a 30-month period having started in November and was expected to be completed by May 2027 adding that the 200km route had been divided into six sections with the first section being from Francistown to Sebina junction.

He noted that the project was done by a joint venture of three construction companies being Unik, Liftoff and Evolution. Mr Mpowe further explained that the first section was done at cost of about P1.3 billion and it entailed construction of a 30.5-kilometre dual carriageway from Francistown to Mathangwane and two bridges at Tati and Shashe Rivers respectively, to accommodate the two additional lanes. He also stated that the flyover and a weighbridge would be constructed at the current Orapa Junction, which he said formed the major works of the project on the particular section.

Furthermore, he pointed out that they had engaged CCP Botswana, bridge construction specialists, who constructed the Kazungula Bridge, to make assessments and make recommendations for the existing bridges at the two rivers, adding that the company recommended that the current ones be refurbished only and the construction of new ones be done as planned.

As for other sections, Mr Mpowe reported good progress save for the sections from Mosetse to Sowa Junction and Sowa Junction to Nata where the contractor was still mobilising to move to site. Nevertheless, he said they were challenged by sourcing material as they currently had one burrow pit at their disposal and that their back and forth interactions for an additional one with licencing authorities had not yet yielded any positive outcome. He further decried that some service providers such as Botswana Fibre Networks and Botswana Telecommunications Corporation had not relocated their network infrastructure yet despite notification.

For his part, Assistant Minister Atamelang said it was worrisome that projects were delayed due to bureaucratic processes, which affected the turn-around time for processes requiring authorisation taking longer than was necessary. Such thing, he said, needed to be addressed by ensuring that accounting officers act timely to move projects along on time. He further expressed disappointment at the 30-day that had been lost noting that the A3 road was an international trade route, which government wanted to exploit in efforts to boost trade and revive the economy.

In addition, the assistant minister noted that it was imperative that as ministries they had a holistic framework so that whenever a project was undertaken, departments moved swiftly to facilitate for smooth implementation. This, he said, would prevent unnecessary delays, which often resulted from some service providers not having acted accordingly. ENDS