30 Jul 2026

The Moshupa-Manyana road currently stands at 42 per cent physical completion level against the planned 79 pe rcent.

Answering a question in Parliament on July 29, Assistant Minister for Transport and Infrastructure, Mr Keoagile Atamelang said the project was behind schedule by 10 months since its planned completion date was October 17, 2026.

Mr Atamelang said factors, which contributed to the project to be behind schedule, were delays in granting mineral permit resulting in the contractor sourcing material 12km away from a private burrow pit since project inception until July 13, 2026 when a permit was granted for a borrow pit, which was along the road alignment. 

He said the initial burrow pit led to slow progress on site due to hauling distance.

The assistant minister said the other factor was inclement weather, saying cumulatively, a total of 52 days were lost during heavy rains experienced in 2024, 2025 and 2026 rainy seasons. 

As a result, he said the contractor had submitted his Notice of Intention to Claim for Time delays due to inclement weather to the Engineer.

Mr Atamelang said the other cause of delay was the contractor’s financial constraints emanating from contractor’s slow rate of progress. 

“The contractor’s current rate of progress has not assisted his cash flow as he has been paid Interim Payment Certificate (IPCs), which are less than the minimum IPC amount set in the Contract as his progress was lower than anticipated,” he noted.

He said the ministry was acceding to payments of these IPCs in order to facilitate the contractor’s cash flow.

Mr Atamelang said the other factor was unilateral suspension of works for one month due to delayed payments during 2024/2025 financial year emanating from government liquidity challenges.

He said unforeseen circumstances such as water seepage or rising water table led earthworks in the affected areas to be halted pending exposure of the water table and provision of subsurface drainage works.

Furthermore, the assistant minister said the contractor had been issued with notice to accelerate progress or catch-up as required by the contract in an effort to ascertain timely delivery of the project.

He said it was anticipated that the project would be completed within budget.

To date, a total of P92,741,602.39 has been spent out of a total of P376,410.494.94.

Mr Atamelang was responding to a question from Moshupa-Manyana MP, Mr Karabo Gare, who asked the minister to provide an update on the progress made to date regarding the construction of the Manyana-Moshupa Road and the current percentage of the physical completion of the project, whether the project was on schedule to meet its planned completion date.

Mr Gare also wanted to know the challenges if any, which affected the implementation of the project and the measures being taken by the ministry to ensure that the project was completed within the approved budget and timeframe. ENDS