The Minister of Infrastructure Science and Technology, Johnny Swartz, last week gave a final chance to Tuwana Construction Company, the contractors who are in the middle of controversy over failure to complete the Francistown Stadium.
Last week during his tour of the project, it emerged that the stadium, which is already over a year behind schedule, will be completed in March next year due to minor modifications.
However, after the tour of the project last week, the Lead Consultant and Civil Structure Engineer of the company, Charles Kachuta, revealed during the review discussion of the project that the stadium is 96 percent to 97 percent complete with the only delay being the rectification of the athlete fields and the planting of the lawn, which he only estimated to be completed next year in March.
The multimillion sports facility was supposed to have been handed over to the client, Botswana government, in February 2010.
Several issues surrounding the stagnant progress have been blamed on the poor quality of the project, ranging from poor soccer fields, poor athlete fields and ignorance of labour policies by the contractor which have impeded its completion.
“I know that this stadium has attracted a lot of controversy but what I want to plead with the contractors this time is that it is high time that we should stop to be at each other’s throats for the project to be completed and meet the required international standard in terms of quality,” the Minister told the meeting.
Swartz said that it is in the interest of Batswana and the government to see the stadium meeting international standards and emphasized that next year when he tours the stadium it should be complete.
He said that he is impressed that at least there has been significant improvement on the side of contractors as compared to the past year.
