10 Sep 2015

A motion of no confidence against Francistown mayor, Ms Silvia Muzila, has not seen light of the day. Tshwaraganang ward councillor, Mr Gaone Majere of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), said in an interview that he withdrew the motion because he did not have support from the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) members.

Cllr Majere said he had tabled the motion because he initially had backing from some councillors in the BDP, but they later backed down.

On one hand, Ms Muzila said she believed that councillors had realised the need to unite and work together to achieve their Vision 2022 goal that sought to  create jobs, enhance peoples’ living standards, develop public spiritedness among citizens and cleaning the city.

She also indicated that the city council had land that investors could use to set up their businesses. She indicated that the geographical positioning of the city gave it comparative advantage over other places, thus the need for them to ensure that it looked more attractive.

Ms Muzila explained that they needed to collectively implement government policies to transform the city by bringing more developments that would also make the landscape more attractive.

On issues raised by councillors in previous meetings, the City Mayor said those had been noted and some were still being discussed at their Council Committees and were yet to be resolved at that level. Ms Muzila further advised councillors that some of issues would be endorsed at a full council meeting after having been fully addressed at committee level.

She added that some issues were also being actively discussed within committees and reports on the resolutions would be presented accordingly.

On the issue of public toilets, she told councillors that some public toilets, especially in the wards, had been given to social welfare committee to allocate to Ward Development Committees (WDCs) by the Finance Committee. Ends