26 Feb 2025

The Chairperson of the Tutume District Council, Mr Tabona Masole, has said in everything they are going to do as district, they should strive to execute their diverse mandates seriously and respect timelines.

 Addressing a Full Council Meeting in Tutume on Monday, Mr Masole said there should be no room for failure as their success would have a positive impact on their district and create a better future for the district’s residents, adding that they needed effective monitoring and evaluation mechanism to track progress on whether they were able to achieve set targets.

Mr Masole said as raised in various platforms, their council suffered corruption in many different ways that impeded service delivery and this scenario tasked them to find permanent solutions to the challenge.

 He said he would advocate for successful programme and project implementation, adding that lack of resources stalled multiple projects that could contribute positively to development.

 “We therefore have to speak in one voice for resource mobilisation while at the same time curbing any chances of corruption,” he said

 Mr Masole added that public officers, including councillors as the political wing, had to respect work start times as prescribed in their employment contracts and meetings shall start on scheduled times. 

 He informed the council that the current Transitional National Development Plan of National Development Plan (TNDP) 11 which was to end on the 31st March 2025, will be extended by four months up to July 2025 as the aim is to allow for the Draft National Development Plan 12 to be discussed in the June/July parliament sitting.

 He pointed out that out of 644 TNDP projects only 11.2 percent had been completed, 40.5 per cent were ongoing at different levels of implementation while 48.3 percent had not yet started.

 He thus said the extension of four months will allow some of the ongoing projects to be completed and accord them an opportunity to further be involved in the consultation process of the next set of plans in alignment with the priorities of the new government.

Mr Masole said the re-construction of A3 road from Francistown to Nata, awarded to Okavango Africa Consortium for a cost of more than P4 billion started in December and was expected to be completed by November 2027. He said it was vital to note that two sections out of the six sections that make up the whole project have commenced.

As for Nata-Gweta road, he stated that it would also be done through Development Manager model at a cost of P1.4 billion for a duration of two and half years. ENDS