Gaborone roads embarrass city mayor
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Tuesday September 17, 2019 12:25
“Almost all roads in Gaborone have reached their lifespans. This is the painful reality. The council has tried to maintain the roads and potholes but unfortunately these roads are beyond redemption. Gaborone needs new roads, simple as that,” Thutlwe said yesterday during a council meeting.
He urged the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) to commit resources towards building new roads in Gaborone.
Thutlwe said over the past five years, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) government played deaf whenever council requested funds to address the dilapidated roads of Gaborone.
The mayor revealed that Asphalt overlay of Nelson Mandela road was funded by the Chinese at a total of P10 million and was completed in 2018.
On road maintenance projects, Thutlwe said the recurrent budget has assisted in addressing issues of concern in the city.
“Some of the projects undertaken among others were construction of storm water drains in various places in Gaborone and paving of roads and walkways in Phase 1, Maruapula, Ledumang and Block 3; Replacement of streetlight wooden poles with steel poles at Maruapula; Extension 25 and Phase 4,” he said.
He said all those efforts were to improve old and unserviceable roads since most roads have reached their design lifespan and are experiencing regular occurrence of potholes and improving street lighting within the city.
Another concern that the city mayor is complaining about is of cattles roaming in the city.
“This is a serious cause for concern. The main cause of this problem is the drought, which the country has experienced recently and the inadequate grazing land for the livestock in the villages surrounding Gaborone,” he said.
“Our attempts to hire casual labourers to remove and drive out the livestock from the streets have proven inadequate. More needs to be done in this regard. A holistic approach needs to be implemented as a matter of urgency to arrest the situation. Our city and country cannot be attractive to foreign direct investment with our current state of roads. More needs to be done in this area.”