Addressing the Full Council on Monday, the City Mayor Austin Abraham, said the city council will be allocated half of the Roads Levy Fund for the maintenance of the roads. “The list of the prioritised roads has been submitted to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development and is under consideration. As soon as funds are approved, project implementation will commence. The Gaborone City Council will be allocated about half of the Roads Levy Fund for our roads maintenance as was pronounced in the Budget Speech of February 2024,” Abraham said.
Furthermore, the mayor said there has always been an outcry of the bad state of the road networks. He said there is a notable improvement that has been made in terms of road maintenance despite the little resources that they had through the different funding sources. In 2019, the former mayor, Kagiso Thutlwe, said in a Full Council meeting; “Almost all roads in Gaborone have reached their life spans. 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.” He said on the construction of storm water drainage in Bontleng, Phase and Itumeleng ward funded at P5 million from the Capital maintenance, has commenced and progressing well at 55%. The mayor revealed that all projects that were implemented through the recurrent budget in the past financial year have been completed. He continued: “As you might be aware, we were implementing Community Constituency Projects (CCP) for 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years. This was a difficult situation but we managed. I am informed that all roads CCP projects for 2022/23 projects have been complete and 23/24 projects are at an advanced stage of completion. Some paving and chip seal projects, which are lagging behind was a result of delays in supply of materials by suppliers. Areas where projects have not been completed include Kgale View, White City, Difetlhamolelo and Maruapula for paving, and chip seal in the Government ward, Sebele, and Tsogang.”
