Francistown Mayor Shadreck Nyeku has expressed concern over the poor state of roads in Francistown, saying that there is an urgent need for the government to attend to the setback.
Speaking to the Telegraph in an interview, the mayor stressed that there is a serious need by the relevant Ministry to attend to Francistown roads as the roads are highly dilapidated.
“As Francistown City Council, we have long expressed our concerns to government, especially with regard to the Tonota ÔÇô Francistown road and, mysteriously, the development of the road was never included in the NDP 10 projects,” Nyeku said.
The mayor went on to add that instead, to their amazement, there is an on-going construction of the Ramokgwebana – Francistown road, which was never of main concern.
He stated that the City of Francistown really needs to be attended to, particularly with roads as this will not attract potential investors into the city. The other worry that the mayor put across is that the storm water drainage system in Francistown is in a poor state as it is unable to control water during the rainy season, leading to floods in people’s homes.
“The storm water drainage system is also of great concern because it cannot properly control water during the rainy season, leading to floods in homes,” said Nyeku.
Nyeku further said that they, as FCC, told the relevant Ministry to attend to the situation of roads and the storm water drainage system, but to date they were only told that the government does not have enough money to do the projects.
The mayor continued to say that although the government says that there is insufficient money, in Gaborone there is continuous construction and maintenance of roads as compared to Francistown.
Nyeku revealed that the City Council is yet to send a delegation led by him to the relevant Ministry to try and attend to the infrastructure crisis of Francistown.
“One of the developments that we need in Francistown is the establishment of the District Hospital, because Nyangabwe is a Referral Hospital and therefore the hospital is overwhelmed as it has to admit patients from all over the Northern Region from as far away places as Maun and Kasane,” the mayor concluded.
