Francistown City Council owed P102 million in rates

Mayor of Francistown, Sylvia Muzila has expressed concern that non collection of rates, building materials loans, service levy arrears and other council charges are hampering a lot of intended developments in the city. Speaking during the just ended full council meeting, she said that the council is owed P102, 956,572.60 as rates to date. For this financial year alone, the council only managed to collect P14, 001,052.90 meaning that FCC needs to encourage people to use the channels that are in place to pay rates.

“As for service levy, we are owed P10, 749,206 .82 and the collection for this financial year only amounts to P795,980.50 whilst the building materials loans currently stand at P8,939,470.92 whilst the collected amount is P460,584.05,’ she said. Her sentiments come at a time the city of Francistown is embarking on major developments at the city’s golf course, central market and Dumela industrial site plots. So far the central market has already found an investor to turn the old place into an exciting business hub.

The city abattoir is yet to be handed to a new investor, Judex Ventures, and the mayor lamented that Physical Planning department should speed up the process of finalising the deal so that it benefits residents of Francistown. Moreover, the mayor informed the house that another project which needs to be invested into is the council farm which she said can be used to generate revenue for the city since it has some facilities of great value which needs some refurbishments hence the need to up the game in the collection of service levy.