Francistown not investor friendly - cllrs

CHAKALISA DUBE
Staff Writer | Monday April 29, 2013 00:00

Councillors convened a special council meeting last Thursday to air their concerns regarding the municipality's failure to arrest the apparent poor service delivery in the city.

Recently at a Botswana Teachers Union (BTU) elective congress, Kgalajwe said that investors should consider shifting to Francistown to tap into opportunities created by the upsurge in mining activities in the northern part of the country.

Kgalajwe also said the property market in Gaborone is getting saturated and Francistown is an ideal alternative for the ambitious investor.However, former mayor Buti Billy said that with its poor infrastructure the city had little chance to attract investors.

'How can an investor be interested in investing in a city that has poor roads and almost all street lights are not functioning regularly? 'Even traffic lights around the city constantly experience faults. Unless we address these issues (poor roads, faulty street lights and traffic lights), we cannot hope to attract investors.

'The FCC should help foster job creation here by assisting investors to set up businesses with ease,' he added.Francistown South councillor Ignatius Moswaane said that attracting investors by the city council would remain a mirage if it does not improve its service delivery system.

'Potential investors want people who will deal with their requests and all forms of inquiries well on time. If the FCC officers do not adhere to set service standards and continue with their poor work ethics, it will scare away investors, 'Moswaane said. Councillors concurred with both Billy and Moswaane and called for radical changes to make the northern city attractive to foreign direct investments (FDIs).

The council meeting was adjourned and will convene again on Monday (today).  The adjournment is meant to avail FCC heads of department time to compile reports detailing why their respective units have failed to arrest the ailing service delivery.The departments are also expected to explain what they are doing or intend to do to arrest the poor service delivery, which has been rampant at the FCC for some time.