Africa-Press – Botswana. The North West District Council (NWDC) has been advised to embark on sustainable income generating projects to augment its developmental budget.
The Assistant Minister of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Mr Ignatius Moswaane made the call when responding to some comments raised by the council chairman, Mr Itumeleng Kelebetseng who complained about inadequate budget allocation that constrained them to address some of the challenges in the district such as maintenance of schools and improving internal roads, among others.
However, Mr Moswaane said they should start self-sustaining income projects citing the North West shopping complex construction because they have the land. He said councils should appreciate that the country’s economy was not stable as it was on a collapsing state, hence they should think outside the box and look for ways to expand their revenue base.
He indicated that the first annual development plan needed P86 billion and yet the Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) was collecting 13% of the revenue compared to other neighbouring countries, which collect 25% of the Gross Domestic Product.
He said there were lots of goods entering the country and he, however, appreciated that BURS has accelerated efforts to collect taxes and embark on robust debt recovery strategies saying the government needs revenue to construct schools, clinics and other development projects.
Mr Moswaane appreciated that their area was a tourism hub and called on them to exploit available opportunities saying investors should not come and generate revenue at their expense and leave while the community is not benefiting from the resource.
“There are a lot of opportunities in the tourism sector that you can tap into and generate more revenue to develop Maun and create employment opportunities,” he advised.
Earlier on in his welcome remarks, the NWDC chairman Mr Kelebetseng said their budget was inadequate to undertake all the planned developmental projects in the district saying the budget had been reduced by 14%. He said the district was faced with various challenges ranging from non-functional streets lights, poor road infrastructure and shortage of furniture and classrooms in primary schools noting that some classes were taught under trees.
Although, he acknowledged that the private sector donated two-teacher schools but due to budget constraints, the council had failed to construct more classes to turn the schools into fully fledged schools. Mr Kelebetseng also revealed that they have a hostel at Kareng village, which houses pupils from the settlements to afford them an opportunity to access education closer and stated that the facility is an eyesore as it has not been maintained for years.
He said some people had called for its closure because it is not habitable for pupils and “we need P9 million for its maintenance but we received less than P1 million”. He said the plan was to carry out maintenance of schools every five years but that was impossible because of the limited budget. He also pointed out that they had received clinics and they are in bad state.
“Our district is faced with many challenges and the allocated budget will not enable us to execute our mandate efficiently and effectively for the betterment of the communities,” he added.
Mr Kelebetseng also requested that when the government develops polices, it should not make them one size fits all saying they should take into consideration the districts’ geographical locations.
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