Tutume District chairperson queries gov't's A3 delays

Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Thursday June 8, 2023 16:09

This follows a statement by the Minister of Transport and Public Works, Eric Molale that the road procurement process is ongoing and once complete the project will commence. In another development, when presenting her budget speech early this year, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Peggy Serame said the construction of the A3 Road, which is considered to be amongst the busiest in the country, would start during the 2023-2024 financial year. Kehitile’s plea comes after Nata/Gweta legislator, Polson Majaga expressed his frustrations on government delay in rebuilding the A3 Road.

In an interview with Mmegi, the Tutume District Council chairperson said the government should ensure that the A3 Road procurement process should be completed faster so that the project can take off before the end of this month (June). He said if the project takes off sooner, they would be able to save more lives on the highway. According to Kehitile, several individuals have lost their lives on A3 route but yet the government continues to turn a blind eye to the deadly situation. He further said the recent horrific accident, which happened near Marapong village and claimed the lives of 22 people, have rubbed salt in their wounds. Kehitile stated that even though so many people have lost their lives on the same road, the government is yet to prioritise reconstruction of the road. “It is sad to witness our government prioritise other projects such as building multi million bridge yet there is a deadly road trap which urgently needs to be reconstructed. Since the usage of the Kazungula bridge, road traffic on A3 Road has since double up as it is frequently used by interregional trucks within Southern Africa,” he said.

Kehitile stated that the government should have heeded Majaga’s plea on rebuilding the road to avoid road accidents on A3 highway. Politics aside, Majaga has over the years shared his concerns about the A3 highway but his requests were ineffective since they were ignored. According to Kehitile it was only reasonable for the government to account for every life lost on A3 route due to their ignorance of the deadly situation. He added that due to the dreadful situation, voters are losing confidence in political leaders. “The transactional development plan (TDP) for the A3 road has been in place for a while without being put into action. I recently addressed a Kgotla meeting and discussed TDP put in place for the district, but nobody seemed impressed. They stated that they were sick of all the ideas that were never put into action,” added Kehitile. Kehitile claimed the government did not care about the residents in their district because other projects in other places were given priority over them. He noted that the Mmandunyane to Mathangwane road project is about to take off, but considering the importance of the two roads, theirs (A3) takes precedence.

He continued, "We thought that the previous catastrophe, which occurred along Mafungo/Hubona and lost 16 lives, would raise an alarm, but they visited the spot and kept quiet.” The Tutume District Council chairperson implored the government to treat its citizens equally, just like those living in the South. He claimed that because people believe the southern region of the country is seeing more progress, there is now a chasm between the southern and northern sides of the country.