Africa-Press – Botswana. Mmadinare residents witnessed the signing of contract between Ministry of Transport and Public Works and Ocean Cables to mark the commencement of Damochojenaa and Mmadinare access roads maintenance as well as surfacing of the Mmadinare-Robelela road project.
The main works of the P95m project include resealing and road marking of Damochojenaa access roads (6km), 14km Mmadinare access road, road marking and installation of studs or reflectors on the first 16km of Serule-Selebi Phikwe road and rehabilitation of the 40km Mmadinare-Robelela road.
Minister of Transport and Public Works, Mr Eric Molale informed the leadership and residents of the three villages during the signing ceremony held at Mmadinare kgotla on Wednesday that the project was expected to be completed in 24 months.
He said government had done its part by sourcing funding for maintenance of the road, calling upon the contractor and other stakeholders to do their part to ensure that the road got completed on time. “We will no longer be starting projects without signed contracts.
My ministry has introduced a new initiative of signing contracts in a transparent manner to ensure that communities had a sense of belonging to projects and also for contractors to understand that they were accountable to these communities,” he said.
The initiative to sign contracts in a transparent manner, he said demonstrated government’s commitment to citizen empowerment and realisation of pieces of legislation such as Economic Inclusion Act, which sought, among others to promote effective participation of citizens in the economic growth.
He said projects such as this one were meant to create jobs, more especially to the youth, ease doing business, connect communities and improve quality of life for all citizens.
Mr Molale further explained that his ministry had realised the importance of bringing all key stakeholders responsible for projects implementation on board, namely the district leadership, local communities, contractors and the relevant ministry to collectively own these projects.
He said his ministry resorted to signing contracts at dikgotla to ensure that there was ownership and that projects were delivered on time, within cost and of desirable quality.
For his part, area MP Mr Molebatsi Molebatsi thanked government for taking the initiative to develop village infrastructure as infrastructural development had a positive impact in the improvement of the communities’ livelihoods.
He said community projects contributed significantly to empowering local businesseses and promoted employment creation in the villages, urging the contractor to use the kgotla to recruit employees so that where there were problems, dikgosi would be there to assist.
Mr Molebatsi said Mmadinare expected a total of 27 projects to be undertaken in the village including those that would be delivered through Ipelegeng and Constituency Community projects.
He said he would continue to work hard to ensure that no projects in this constituency were deferred. He also thanked the councillors in his constituency for working together as a collective to bring developments in Mmadinare and other villages.
The contractor, Mr Bonnie Thabolo promised to deliver the projects as desired.
He also promised to recruit his employees at the kgotla, giving priority to Mmadinare community. Meanwhile Messrs Molale and Molebatsi visited the Bailey bridge project connecting Tshokwe and Tobane villages.
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