He said the situation is worsened by the fact that the shortfall comes at a time when the Council had already made several revisions to its initial request of 381 243 844 to P41 177 000 but only got P34 876 622.
He said these budgetary cuts imply that the GCC will not be able to do 91 percent of its intended projects in the 2004-5 financial year.
The P34 876 622 allocated to the GCC will be used to fund the following projects: P294 000 for infrastructure maintenance, P1 650 000 for primary health facilities, P3 000 000 for municipal services, P24 832 622 for recreational facilities and P5 100 000 for the construction of urban roads.
Mothei said the projects that have already been funded are the purchase of a generator, two ambulances and the construction of a generator house for Block 8 clinic. A standby generator has also been bought at the clinic.
Other projects include the extension of the maternity ward at the Tsholofelo Clinic, the on-going construction of a sub-fire station, the servicing of Blocks 5, 8 and 10.
The old Lobatse road, which starts at the circle that joins Kudumatse Road to the circle joining the Western By-pass at Kgale Spar is also being upgraded into a dual carriageway.
Mothei said the city council has also been allocated P10 200 000 for the construction of modern kitchens in 22 primary schools. But he argued the Council would not construct the dinning halls in the current phase of development because of financial constraints.
The Council’s department of Environmental Health has received P930 953.29 for the purchase of clinical waste vehicles and the construction of public toilets at Taung hiking sport and Tlokweng taxi rank.
Mothei said that despite the on-going outsourcing of waste management services, efforts to keep the city clean are frustrated by indiscriminate littering. He said although public awareness campaigns continue to be undertaken “it was disheartening to note that some people have persistently ignored all measures in place to keep the city clean”.
He was also concerned about vandalism of streetlights especially by reckless drivers who continue to knock-down streetlight poles. He said this coupled with the stealing of power cables is a drawback to the efforts by the Council to get streetlights working. He lamented that despite all these, the Council is blamed for the non-functioning streetlights.
