Some residents in Gaborone’s new stance location are complaining that a Gaborone City Council dilapidated building in their area which used to be a bar is now an eye sore.
The residents argue that the building is among other things being used as a toilet and hide out for petty criminals who terrorise them.
These complaints were made by several residents of the location amongst them Eric Pono who complains that they can hardly rest outside their houses when it is raining because of the bad smell that emanates from the building when it is raining.
“When it is raining like it is doing now, it is very bad for us we cannot eat because of the smell of urine and human manure coming from that building day and night,” he complained.
Pono says what irritates them most is that they have raised complaints about it during several kgotla meetings but no action has been taken. This he says shows that the Council which owns the buildings does not care about their well being.
Another resident Oabile Letsema concurs with Pono saying that he has been wondering why there is no action taken to put the place back into use considering that it is in the middle of the location and can be turned into a mall of some type.
“These Council authorities I am surprised they are always saying that they do not have money to provide us with necessary services yet they are failing to develop the place to make money out of rent,” he said.
Asked to comment on the matter, GCC Public Relations Officer, Seeletso Lekgaba confirmed that the building is dilapidated but that last year in January they leased the place to a company called Commodities Marketing whose Director is Tebogo Sekgoma.
Sekgoma he said proposed to build office and business units in the area. Lekgaba then referred all other questions to Sekgoma whom we could not reach by the time of going to press.
A month ago Lekgaba said that they were looking for partners to renovate their abattoir which is also standing dilapidated in Old Naledi area.
