Francistown Mayor, James Kgalajwe, has expressed concerns over shortage of resources at the City Council, saying that the challenge is hindering their efforts to collect waste in the city.
Addressing a full council meeting on Monday, the Mayor said that collection of waste continues to be a serious concern mainly due to the continuous breakdown of the limited number of refuse compactors that are available in the city.
“Just two weeks ago, there was only one compactor on the road. This is a serious challenge and the council has communicated its request of shortage of compactors to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development by way of a project memorandum,” he said.
He said that the city is supposed to be serviced by 14 refuse compactors but currently they have only four that service the whole city.
He also said that collection of skips in the city pose another challenge as the city council currently has 45 trucks to haul skips, adding that one skip master is on the road while the other one is malfunctioning. He further said that five tractors that were supposed to haul 35 tractor skips have also been boarded and have not been replaced due to budgetary constraints.
“This therefore translates into a very big challenge concerning collection of skips,” he added.
Touching on the current power cuts which are haunting the country due to Botswana Power Corporation load shedding, the mayor said that the challenge has negated the city council efforts to deliver services effectively to the public. He urged members of the public to exercise patience as works are currently on-going at the Morupule Power Stations to address the problem.
“The electricity power cuts will continue until the end of June this year and I would love to urge the public to exercise patience as works are currently on-going at both Morupule Power Stations,” he said.