18 Mar 2025

The much awaited 25 kilometres Maun internal roads project will commence on March 24 for a duration of 21 months, says the North West District Council chairman, Mr Itumeleng Kelebetseng.

The project comprises of 10km-tarred roads and 15km paving. Ground breaking for the project was performed last October at Matlapana. It is expected to cost P41 617 894.50, which includes compensation for those that will be affected.

Delivering a speech during a full council session yesterday, Mr Kelebetseng said the completion date of the project is expected to be December  19, 2026. He said that kgotla meetings had already been held in Disana ward where some properties would be affected. He aded that meetings with individual property owners started February and were ongoing.

Mr Kelebetseng said the project entailed 11 roads with a total length of 24.766km, which would be implemented in two phases.

“Roads site handover was done on March 13 at Maun Lodge and the works were located at Boseja South, Boseja North, Matlapana, Old Disana, New Disana, Sedie, Moeti East, Boronyane, Tsanekona 1 and Thamalakane North wards,” he said.

Mr Kelebetseng said poor road infrastructure in the district was worrisome and noted that some continued to deteriorate due to lack of maintenance.

On other issues, Mr Kelebetseng updated council on the recurrent budget for the 2024/25 financial year. He said that government departments including councils relied heavily on Revenue Support Grant (RSG) to deliver services and the last quarter of the financial year was a hard one as the RSG was cut by over P14 million, representing 20 per cent of the approved RSG for the financial year.

That, he said, had led to the council not providing services as expected as they had to reprioritise with what they had. He revealed that the council had managed to collect revenue amounting to P4 579 708.24 against a budget of P11 439 530 representing 40 per cent.

“You will agree with me that we are performing badly when it comes to revenue collection and we have to find ways of maximisation of revenue collection,” he stressed.

Mr Kelebetseng also updated on the disaster situation in the district following the heavy rains experienced across the country since late last year. He said the North West District experienced heavy rains between the month of December and February, which resulted in floods.

Mr Kelebetseng pointed that a total of 128 houses from 19 villages and wards in Maun were affected by floods and strong winds, which led to destruction of houses, especially those made of mud, blowing away of roofs and damaging household items.

He said the district through the Disaster Management Team, managed to respond rapidly to affected individuals, who were provided with psychosocial support, food and tents. ENDS