24 Mar 2025

The Assistant Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Mr Keoagile Atamelang says the A35 Sehithwa to Shakawe road accidents cannot be attributed to the bad state of the road. Responding to a Parliamentary question on Friday,

Mr Atamelang said they have managed to consolidate statistics for 15 years from 2009, when the Micro-accident Analysis Programme, which produces computerised accidents statistics was implemented.

He said accidents could be ascribed to other variables such as speeding, stray animals, distracted driving, fatigue, time of day, and human error, to mention a few.

Mr Atamelang said 675 accidents were recorded on the A35 (Sehithwa-Shakawe) between 2009 and 2024, citing that a total number of 46 people lost their lives, while 123 sustained serious injuries and 308 sustained minor injuries.

“I am aware of the bad state of the road from Nokaneng to Shakawe. However, I am not aware of any sub-standard work being carried out on the on-ongoing works on Gumare-Mohembo road,” he said.

Mr Atamelang said the works were being done in accordance with established quality processes and procedures based on existing national standards as encapsulated in the Botswana Road Design Manual (BRDM), Standard Specifications for Road and Bridge Works (SSRBW), and the Botswana Road Maintenance Manual (BRMM). 

He said the ministry took the decision to rehabilitate the Gumare-Mohembo road in 2021 instead of reconstruction because of lack of funds.

Mr Atamelang said the reconstruction of this road would be considered alongside other development projects for future funding.

In addition, he said the reconstruction of Nokaneng-Gumare Road, which was within the Nokaneng-Shakawe Road was planned to be done under the Development Manager Model, which was still under review.

Moreover, he said two contractors were awarded to rehabilitate two sections, being Gumare-Sepopa and Sepopa-Mohembo, which were within the Gumare-Mohembo section of the road.

He said progress on the Gumare-Sepopa road section was at 25 per cent against the planned 99 percent, with a contractual completion date of February 2025.

The assistant minister added that the Sepopa-Mohembo section was at 19 per cent against the planned 99 per cent, and the contractual completion date was February 2025.

Mr Atamelang said the delays for the two road sections were mainly attributable to the shortage of gravel material in the area and delays emanating from the change of project scope to include the construction of shoulders to widen the road and the use of cold-recycling technology for the construction of bad sections of the road.

He said there was an existing criterion to determine whether a road needs construction, reconstruction or rehabilitation, which emanated from the Road Condition Survey carried out every three years.

The criteria, he noted, was primarily based on the existing condition of the road, traffic volume and design life, and these were evaluated against the available budget to determine the appropriate intervention.

Mr Atamelang said the last Road Condition Survey carried out in 2022 recommended the reconstruction of the Nokaneng-Shakawe Road from 2024.

Due to budgetary constraints, he said the ministry currently had no plans to grade and maintain the roads to borders in Ngami constituency.

However, he said the ministry would continue to grade Habu, Qangwa and Dobe roads equally as the rest of the gravel roads in the Ngami constituency, which were graded quarterly, subject to availability of funds.

He said the roads to Tubu and Danega were under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Local Government and Traditional Affairs. 

Ngami MP, Mr Phillimon Aaron had asked the minister to state the number of accidents that occurred on the A35 (Sehithwa-Shakawe) road due to a bad state of the road in the past 15 years and to further state the number of fatalities and injured persons from those accidents. ENDS