14 Jul 2024

Tsabong District councilors have given a thumbs up to proposed District Development Plan 9 (DDP9) and National Development Plan 12 (NDP12) projects. Delivering the proposed projects during a special full council recently principal council economist, Ms Boitumelo Leshiba said the DDP 9 consultations were done in a bottom-up planning approach where communities were given an opportunity to present their proposed projects aligned to government priorities from June 10-21 under the theme “Innovating for Economic Growth.” She said the theme directed them to look at high impact projects in the community to foster economic growth during grading where planners selected projects following a guiding tool that gauged viability of the project to make it while competing with others nationally. Ms Leshiba explained that three tools entailed assessing the result logic framework, concept note and the third stage which employed metrics used to score projects. “These are the approved tools that rate the projects during implementation and the impact of the project after completion on the community,” she said. According to Ms Leshiba, after applying the scoring tool, proposed DDP9 projects for Tsabong District entailed; construction of Tsabong Primary hospital (53 beds), construction of Bokspits-two Rivers road, construction of Khuis-Khawa road, construction of Kokotsha-Tsabong-McCarthy’s Rust road, construction of Bray-Mmathethe road, Werda wellfield, construction of storage facilities and water transfer schemes to Makopong, Draihoek, Kokotsha and Bray, expansion of internet bandwidth in the district, land servicing of industrial plots in Tsabong adding that Tsabong has been declared a planning area. Moreover, she said other DDP9 projects included Tsabong Sub Landboard acquisition, upgrading of water desalination plant in BORAVAST cluster, construction of solar plant to supply power in Tsabong, construction of sewage line in Tsabong planning area, construction of service centers at Bokspits, Middlepits and Werda, construction of an airstrip at Logaganeng ward at Maubelo, and upgrading of Khawa health post to clinic with maternity. The economic planner noted that projects were selected looking at critical key challenges in the district such as unemployment, poor road network connectivity, saline water and water quality, insufficient communication networks, limited entrepreneurship skills and attraction of investors, high cost of goods and services, frequent power cuts, social ills-teenage pregnancy, child abuse, extreme temperatures, vast of the district, poverty and under five years malnutrition, drought, veld fires, invasive plant species such as ‘sexanana’ and ‘mongana’. Commenting on the proposal, Bogogobo/Kolonkwaneng councilor, Mr Ikitseng Dipone called for airstrip construction proposed for Logaganeng to rather be built at Middlepits catchment area. He reasoned that it would cater for tourists who would enter the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park through the Khawa gate currently under construction. Mr Dipone said if moved there it would complement government efforts of boosting tourism sector by reducing the distance travelled by tourists from Tsabong to Khawa gate. He added that such development would grow the tourism value chains hence employment creation. Omaweneno/ Kisa/ Maralaleng councilor, Mr Ronald Baitsewe also supported relocation of the airstrip from Tsabong to Logaganeng as it was currently positioned on limited space and was in the middle of the village which posed risks to aviation. Middlepits/Khuis councilor Mr Tshwarelo Mmoloki suggested that instead of airstrip construction at Logaganeng, a fully-fledged airport should be constructed. However, Tsabong South councilor Mr John Lentshikang reasoned that it would not be ideal to build an airport as it would take many years to construct and would require substantial funds which were not available. For his part, Tsabong East councilor, Mr Peter Megano called for expansion of a food resources warehouse which should be included in DDP9 adding that the current one was insufficient. He also wanted a livestock management concentration center to have also been included as well as phase II internal roads projects in Tsabong road network adding that accessibility still remained a challenge. Makopong/Draihoek councilor, Mr Moses Chimbombi expressed concern at some key projects in the district such as the Tsabong Multispecies Abattoir which were managed from Gaborone. This, he said was a challenge as the management model caused delays and projects cost over runs. He called for project managers to be stationed at localities where projects were constructed to ensure accountability. Tsabong District council chairperson, Mr Hendrick Jacobs appreciated government move of adopting the Development Manager model where projects accountability would be precisely run under Ministry of Transport and Public Works. He said such infrastructure developments needed oversight works committees at council level and therefore 10 councilors had been selected from both the ruling and the opposition parties to sit in the oversight committee. On other issues, the council was updated on the grading of polling districts or council wards after a team conducted a grading assessment to asses which were the most difficult to serve looking at various factors such as terrain, services, network connectivity, media availability, population and others where Khawa and Bray were graded as the most difficult polling districts. However most councilors proposed that the score sheet be dropped from 3.9 to 3.0 reasoning that most wards in the district were difficult to reach and therefore the grading tool must be revised. Ends