High vacancy rate at FCC irks mayor
Chakalisa Dube | Tuesday November 21, 2017 18:00
Muzila expressed her frustrations about the high vacancy rate when officially opening the last ordinary full council meeting yesterday.
“We often talk about the challenges of unemployment, but we have many vacant posts in the city council. It is not logical to talk about unemployment while we cannot fill vacancies within our structures. When posts fall vacant, it takes too long to fill them. This is a very worrying trend,” added Muzila in her address.
According to the Mayor, as of last month the FCC had 40 vacancies and that, “40 is a very large figure.” Muzila stated that the council staff should expedite the process of filling the vacancies. “On the posts that are supposed to be filled by our ministry, I urge the town clerk to make follow-ups more often so that they also see the urgency of filling the posts,” Muzila said.
Meanwhile, in her address the Mayor noted that the city council’s desire to have paid parking lots in seven key areas within the central business district is on track. “An expression of interest for the development of paid parking lots is at a vetting stage. Construction of the parking lots will start soon,” she explained.
The parking lots will be constructed in areas near or around Nswazwi mall, KFC, Metcourt, Galo mall and the Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS).
The companies that will win the bid to construct (at their own cost) the parking lots will also operate them under the confines of a lease agreement they will sign with the FCC. Some civic leaders in the city have often expressed concern about shortage of suitable parking space within the city’s main Central Business District (CBD). They said lack of parking space within the city’s main CBD caused unnecessary inconvenience to residents in the city.