Gov’t says 487 workers retrenched in the past year
opelo rakeren | Monday December 1, 2025 06:00
Responding to a question in Parliament this week, the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Pius Mokgware, disclosed that the retrenchments were made by 210 companies that submitted notifications of intention to retrench in terms of section 25 of the Employment Act.
“From the 487 workers retrenched, 458 were from manufacturing, services and repairs, three from building construction, quarrying and exploration, one worker from the wholesale sector, 21 from hotel, catering and entertainment, and about four from communication-based organisation and international institute (Embassy),” the minister added.
Mokgware was responding to a question from Member of Parliament (MP) for Bobirwa Taolo Lucas, who had asked the Minister to state the total number of decent jobs created and those that have been lost since November 2024 and November 2025.
Lucas had also asked the Minister if it was feasible and possible to create 500,000 jobs by the year 2029, as promised by the government. In response, Mokgware acknowledged that the government takes the issue of employment seriously and is committed to fulfilling its requirements in this regard. He highlighted that Statistics Botswana conducts multi–topic surveys periodically, currently working on the report for the Botswana Multi-Topic Household Survey, which commenced in November 2024 and was completed in October 2025.
Mokgware further highlighted that 500 000 jobs pledge by the government confirmed that the initiative is possible. He said the aim is to achieve the goal through an initiative of the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme (BETP), a programme to drive the implementation of the National Development Plan (NDP). He also disclosed that another initiative is the exporting of labour. These initiatives, he said, are to create 512,000 jobs and export 10,000 job seekers respectively.
He further said that BETP aims to create 512,000 jobs through the 816 initiated projects. “Through the exporting of labour, Batswana are to be exposed to the international labour market, as the ministry has since started advertising job positions in Kuwait since September. Government has made significant progress in creating and planning to create employment opportunities in AI (artificial intelligence) by outsourcing and or relocating these jobs abroad over a five-year time frame,” the Minister further revealed. Mokgware said the government is at an advanced stage regarding the introduction of offshore employment on AI over a period of five years.