Gaborone mayor embraces Constituency Funding
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Tuesday March 21, 2017 15:15
Yesterday the city mayor told GCC meeting that the city proposed projects would address issues of employment creation and infrastructure maintenance.
“Let us make sure of this opportunity to improve the lives of our communities. I understand that projects have been collected from all constituencies and a projects have been collected from all constituencies and a memorandum will be submitted soon to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development for the release of funds to effect implementation,” Thutlwe said.
The Mayor said councillors should be aware that council has been struggling with inadequate resources.
However Thutlwe said council leadership has not been consulted with the P10 million development fund for each constituency.
He continued; “ we do not even know the source of the money. How will the money be accounted? This mysterious P10 million leaves a lot to be desired. If the money is to be controlled by Ward Development Committee (WDC)’s, the question is are they capacitated to deal with such huge sums of money? .”
The city mayor said the council has emphasised on the need to have a bottom up approach to development but rather the Government continues to adopt a top down approach to development issues.
“One is left wondering were the WDC’s consulted prior to the P10 million decision? Something is not adding up here,” he said.
On other issues, the mayor said the recent rains have proved that the storm water drainage is inadequate to cope with water.
“The rain has also washed away most of internal gravel roads which are mainly in SHHA area. Generally the city experienced flash floods due to inadequate storm water drains and existing storm water drains were overloaded,” he said.
He said bituminous roads have unprecedentedly developed potholes that are so bad and they cover the entire city road network and it makes it difficult for contractors on site to cope with the maintenance of potholes.
Thutlwe said P354 million is required to maintain the damaged roads caused by recent rains.