SESDC courts private sector for developments

Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Tuesday July 28, 2015 17:01

Speaking at a breakfast meeting organised for investors, council chairman Phenyo Segokgo said the two villages of Ramotswa and Tlokweng are underdeveloped even though they are in the proximity of Gaborone.

“We believe that over time district councils should be self-sustainable, and for this to successfully occur we would have to create an environment in which public private partnerships would thrive.

“These partnerships should benefit both the private sector in terms of return on investment and the host public in terms of employment and general society up-liftment,” Segokgo said.  The SESDC is situated near Gaborone with the two main villages of Tlokweng on the east of the capital, and Ramotswa on the south eastern side.

Segokgo said that following the recession of 2008/9, government took a deliberate decision to suspend development budget allocation to councils and to sustain only recurrent allocation.

He said his council was allocated only P124million for the 2015-2016 financial year, 55% of which is for personnel emoluments.  “It is therefore evident that as councils we need to explore alternative avenues to bridge this gap. The idea that private provision of infrastructure represented a way of providing infrastructure at no cost to the public has now been generally abandoned.

“However, interest in alternatives to the standard model of public procurement remains,” he said.

He told the investors that the council has a 72 hectare plot that was reserved for construction of Magope Recreational Park in Ramotswa village, which could now be developed into a park or other developments that investors may be interested in pursuing.

Segokgo also revealed that the council has another 25 hectares of land in Ramotswa that interested investors could develop into an equivalent of the Central Business District in Gaborone.

Segokgo also invited investors to take advantage another five-hectare piece of land in Tlokweng that can house a taxi rank and shopping complex.

The SESDC move comes at a time when the Gaborone City Council is busy revamping its road infrastructure and repairing streetlights, as well as other infrastructure to boost its image.  The city council got funding of approximately P7 billion to be spent in the next decade to uplift the city.