Stay away from my traffic circles- Mayor

Gaborone City (GC) Mayor, Kagiso Thutlwe has appealed to the youth of Gaborone and Botswana to refrain from damaging the city traffic lights and circles both before and after the country celebrates her golden jubilee in 14 days’ time.

Gaborone City Council (GCC) loses at least P2million per month in repairs and synchronising traffic lights knocked down by overzealous motorists during weekends.

Speaking at the Public Art launch held at the Standard Chartered Bank parking lot at the Gaborone Main Mall, the maverick Thutlwe thanked the Ministry of Youth Sports and Culture and Standard Chartered for having chosen the main mall as part of the places for the murals. He then turned to the youth of Gaborone and said, “To you Gaborone youth please, stay away from my traffic lights and circles. They are decorated to ensure that the city is clean for the celebrations and we want the city to look that way forever,” he said.

Speaking to The Midweek Sun in a later interview, Thutlwe explained that every week on Monday, over five traffic control signals and lights get damaged. “In terms of cost of repairs, it means that the Electrical Department technicians have to fix such lights and that also represents a cost of time,” he said, adding that it costs over P100 000.00 to replace and synchronise one traffic light control signal, while the control machine that has to be programmed every time when the traffic light has been run over costs more than P300 000.00 each.

“I wish to state that GCC spends over P2million on traffic lights damaged by motorists per month.  GC residents expect service delivery such as driving through clean roads free from potholes and everything working properly, but we are always behind because the mandate that could have been achieved by GC is drawn back by such careless drivers.”