NEDC adopts Matsiloje dev. Plan

MASUNGA - The North East District Council (NEDC) has approved the Matsiloje development plan designed by Envirometrix consultants during the ongoing full council session.
The presentation of the plan to the council came as the last stage of the plan to be implemented after going through various stages such as the Tati Land Board and the District Development Committee.
Presenting the plan to the NEDC last week, Enviromentrix Project Manager, Mr Aaron Braimah explained that Matsiloje as a village had the potential to grow to a point of being the most populated settlement in the North East District.
Mr Braimah said the village, located 45 kilometers east of Francistown and sharing the border with Zimbabwe, was conferred a border settlement status as the settlement provides direct link to Zimbabwe through the Matsiloje border post.
"There is no doubt that the village is bound to experience an increase in both human and vehicular traffic that will accentuate the development of Matsiloje, thereby raising the need for planning implications for the development of the village as the central service centre", he asserted.
He said the area has the capacity, to a larger degree, to grow faster than expected in both size and number due to a spin off effect from the mining activities currently going on around the village such as the Signal Hill gold Mine, KCL limestone Mine, Phoenix and Selkirk Mines, the Tati Nickel mine and the Botswana Metal Refinery.
"The fact that these mining activities are in close proximity to the plan area, they are bound to provide a magnetising force in pulling people to the village", he said.
Mr Braimah said an upsurge in the number of applications relating to residential land use and intensification of developments in the last decade gives credence to the development pressure in Matsiloje.
He however acknowledged that the settlement is constrained by a number of natural and man-made physical features such as the Ramokgwebana River and the mining activities around the village that would restrict the spatial development growth of the village.
The Department of Town and Regional Planning (DTRP) in collaboration with the NEDC therefore commissioned the Enviromentrix (Pty) Ltd to prepare a 24-year long term development plan for Matsiloje.
Meanwhile, the District Officer Development, Mr Onkokame Mafhoko presented the District Development Committee report that covers the progress of the developmental projects for central government departments, the district council as well as other sectors in the NE D.
In his presentation, he revealed that the construction of the revenue office and staff houses is running smoothly and expected to be completed by March 2009.
He also revealed that the construction of a national library in Masunga has been allocated P16 million and that the appointment of the consultants still await PPADB's approval .
Mr Mafhoko explained that the Group Consult Company has been awarded a tender to design the Sebina/Ramokgwebana Road.
He said the first inception report on this design has been submitted and the environmental impact assessment is ongoing.
On issues of the government purchased ranches, Mr Mafhoko said the Tati Land Board is currently preparing a detailed land use plan for farm 26/77 NQ and farm 84 OQ that are going to be used for small agricultural holdings and tourism purposes, respectively.
He however raised concern on the challenges the landboard is experiencing whereby the people around the farms allocate themselves land without the land board's approval and demarcate paddocks in areas which have been set aside for communal grazing. BOPA