The city of Francistown is not going to implement any projects in the next financial year due to budgetary constraints.
This was said by Mayor Shadreck Nyeku on Monday when he officially opened the FCC full council meeting, which will run for the whole week.
Ironically, the council is owed over P33 million in rates and service levy, which it is failing to collect.
To this end, the mayor has challenged the council to be more innovative and come up with various income generating activities in order to cushion itself against loss of the usual government revenue support grant.
Although no new projects will be implemented, focus will be shifted to completion of ongoing projects and their close monitoring.
Nyeku decried the fact that some projects have been deferred for too long and the budgetary constraints compound the problems.
In a bid to mitigate the effects of the budgetary constraints, the mayor called for the use of in-house crews to save the little funds that the council has.
Illustrating the negative impact of the budgetary constraints, Nyeku said renovation of schools that were damaged by rain storm last year will not be undertaken as the belated settlement from the insurance company was too little.
He apologized to the house for reporting on the matter late, adding that it was still being pursued and progress will be reported on it in the next full council session.
On a rather pleasant note, the mayor said Pelotelele Primary School and Hostel for the Disabled at Gerald Estates were practically complete, with the contractor working on the outstanding defects.
“The long awaited infrastructure projects at Gerald have been completed and will be handed to Council on Thursday this week. The Department of Lands will also continue with the allocation process. We need to do these allocations very soon so that when defects liability period elapses, all the defects would have been identified and corrected by the contractor,” said the mayor.
Nyeku is, however, worried about environmental challenges in his city as evidenced by poor waste management and the problem of littering and has called on the Francistown community to participate in waste management activities.
“It is disheartening to learn that some members of the community dispose waste in the river. This is unfortunate since it is not environmentally friendly and calls for public education. The public is encouraged to take proper care of the little resources we have. This is where your leadership is needed most and where delivery is most required,” said Nyeku.
Following a twinning collaboration with City of Genk of Belgium, FCC has established a Local Youth Policy Plan, which documents youth development activities to be performed by all youth offices and organizations in the town. Genk helped in designing the policy plan.
He said FCC was the first local authority to come up with a Local Youth Policy Plan adding that it ought to be documented so that it is not forgotten. To this end he thanked the team that designed the policy.
The mayor was, however, disappointed that despite mobilization for the youth to use the P450 000 available from the Youth Fund, no proposals have been received from potential beneficiaries to date.
