Calm returns to FCC meeting

Patricia Edwin
Staff Writer | Tuesday May 21, 2013 00:00

 

These have been some of the major bones of contention and source of tumult in many previous meetings when councillors and managers engaged in verbal wars characterised by heckling, insults and name-calling. A calm and collected Kgalajwe had no hecklers and interrupters as councillors passively listened to him. He called for unity if the council is to achieve its mandate and said 2013 has been marred by upheavals mainly because of service delivery.

'Let me remind you once again that we are all here with a common intent to drive the developmental vehicle of our city, hence the need for us to work together in our mission to achieve our mandate,' he said.   He asserted that differences in opinion should be expected in an  organisation as large as the city council. 'We are all here for the same reason, differences or no differences. We serve the same master who is our customer, hence the need to iron out our differences and continue with our core mandate,' Kgalajwe said.

The mayor referred to the last special full council meeting in April where councillors went for the jugular of the city clerk and heads of department. 'I believe it is a learning curve that all of us have drawn lessons from.  I will therefore call for unity and teamwork so that all of us can be accountable and be answerable for the services we offer to communities. Let us re-dedicate and commit ourselves to improving the lives of the people of Francistown,' he said.

He stated that the council's problems include waste collection, malfunctioning traffic lights, poor street-lights and roads, and the informal sector.  'We need to combine our efforts towards addressing these challenges,' he said. He said waste collection continues to be a problem in the city mainly because of the continuous breakdown of the few council refuse compactors.

'The town is supposed to be serviced by 14 refuse compactors and the situation at present is such that there are only four currently servicing the whole city.  It is a challenge that we have communicated to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) by way of a project memorandum,' he said.

He said that even the collection of the council's 45 skips is a challenge because there is only one skip-master for the purpose. The other skip-master is not functioning because of mechanical problems.

'Four tractors that were supposed to haul 35 skips have been boarded and not replaced due to budget constraints,' said the mayor. He said that waste collection and parks are sharing the only tractor available. The mayor said that the city is faced by an acute shortage of doctors, pharmacy technicians and nurses. 'There are only 10 medical doctors and 11 pharmacy technicians in the facilities under the City of Francistown where there are 14 clinics and two health posts with eight stand-alone Infectious Diseases Control Centres (IDCC) and other outreach services,' he said.

He said this significantly affects health service delivery. He said street and traffic lights are being fixed after four local companies were awarded a tender for the job.