Oarabile Mosikare
25 August 2009
Francistown — The mayor, Honest Buti Billy has lamented that nobody has applied for the turn-key housing scheme since its introduction a year ago. He told the final council meeting yesterday that he was sad to note that not a single applicant has come forward to utilise the scheme despite public education.
"I have previously reported about the turnkey housing scheme, that it is intended to facilitate more access to home ownership by low income members of our society. There has been no uptake of the same since its introduction in August 2008, even after addressing Kgotla meetings raising awareness on the scheme. Once again, I wish to urge members of Francistown to take advantage of this opportunity," the mayor said.
He stated that limited job opportunities continue to create more dependence on social safety nets. He said those frustrated by lack of job opportunities tend to resort to illicit means to survive hence the increase in offences like house break ins and burglary. Billy said the biggest challenge is how to continue with moral social upliftment in the face of the social, political and economic hardships that are prevalent worldwide. He asserted that the greatest challenge is the world economic recession that has forced the city council to forgo almost all the new proposals for Urban Development Plan 3.
"Consequently, the designs for dualing of roads, storm water drainage master plan, abattoir, supplies warehouse and many other projects remain shelved until the next plan period. This then becomes a challenge for the incoming councillors to find alternative means through which the shelved projects can be financed. I will therefore call upon you who may be lucky to come back to this council after the elections to be dynamic in your thinking and come up with proposals that will generate adequate revenue to facilitate implementation of such projects," said Billy.
The mayor said the council has made twining arrangements with the cities of Tai'an in China, Livingstone in Zambia and Genk in Belgium. "We witnessed the renewal of our Memorandum of Understanding with City of Genk on April 8, 2009 which was initially signed in 2004," he said.
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