Mmopane Population Exploding
TheMmopane population growth has brought about numerous developmental challenges, Kweneng District Council (KDC) chairperson, Motlhophi Leo told journalists at a recent press briefing.
Mmopane is one of the villages that fall under KDC.
“The growth of this village astonished many when the 2011 Population and Housing Census was published. The statistics indicated that for the period between 2001 and 2011, the area population grew faster than any village in the country,” Leo said.
“At a growth rate of 15.31%, the population of the village almost grew four-fold from 3,512 in 2001 to 15,450 in 2011. This population growth has brought numerous developmental challenges. It is almost a decade since the last census and the population of Mmopane ballooned even more.”
This has meant the Mmopane population has grown faster than the developments can catch up.
Leo said this has resulted in some of the primary schools experiencing staggering enrolment of 1,109 against an expected 880 pupils for a fully-fledged primary school.
However, he said KDC is building a new primary school at Mmopane. The project, which commenced in 2018 and is expected to be completed by December 2020, will cost an estimated P120 million.
In addition, the chairperson explained that during the financial year 2018-2019 KDC was allocated funds to maintain 26 schools across the district.
“Works are still ongoing for completion of maintenance works for schools at Mogoditshane/Thamaga sub-district the works are complete,” he said.
“The delays in some instances were due to appeals after awarding of the tenders. In Letlhakeng sub-district the delay was largely due to tender documentation, as the sub-district did not have a quantity surveyor for quite some time. All these works were awarded at a total sum of P41.4 million contract.”
On clearing the backlog, Leo said during the last phase of the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP), which is ESP III (2018-2019), KDC was allocated P51.5 million to undertake construction of additional facilities in 18 schools.