Construction of Kopano House finally takes off
Chakalisa Dube | Thursday July 21, 2016 09:59
The project, which has failed to come to fruition for almost three decades due to lack of funds, will cost a whopping P18 million. The much anticipated building will be in the form of a commercial complex.
BNF president Duma Boko made the announcement over the weekend in his address to the party’s elective congress held at Setlalekgosi Junior Secondary School.
“Members will soon be invited to a ground breaking ceremony. Kopano House will no doubt be a massive asset for our organisation,” said Boko.
Owing to the complexity and sensitivity of the project, Boko and a technical team appointed by the party have been given the mandate to handle the project.
Boko, who has been the BNF president since July 2010, explained that the party has now succeeded in putting together the feasibility model of the project.
“We are also on course to secure the necessary funding to begin the project. We have secured all the necessary guarantees to ensure that the finance is obtained.
“The project has now reached critical stages of having secured not just the anchor tenant but also the rest of the tenants whose rentals will help cover the instalment for the repayment of the loan,” he explained.
The latest news will be a sigh of relief to members of the BNF who have lived in constant fear that the party may lose the plot to government as it was on the brink of repossession several times.
Additionally, the issue of lack of development of the Kopano House plot has featured prominently during party gatherings. Several fund raising initiatives for the project have also proved to be a failure. The plot to construct the Kopano House was allocated to the BNF in 1985. In fact, the government had on several occasions threatened to repossess the plot because the party had stayed for a longtime without developing it.
In 2013, at the party’s Gantsi elective congress Boko said the BNF was forced to write a letter to the Ministry of Lands and Housing explaining why the plot should not be repossessed.
This was after the latter had issued yet another letter of intent to repossess the plot. In September last year Boko told Mmegi that the BNF wants to make sure that the construction of the party headquarters is completed before the 2019 general elections so that the party can use the facility to position itself for a triumph at the general elections.