BR fails to break even amidst operating losses
Mpho Mokwape | Tuesday May 26, 2026 10:48
“We have hovered around transporting a million tonnes of freight per year,” he said when appearing before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Statutory Bodies and State Enterprises.
“That million tonnes of freight is not good enough to make us cover all our expenses. What we need is about 1.4 million tonnes,” Gaogane told the committee.
He explained that the lower freight volumes have affected the organisation’s ability to maintain key infrastructure and rolling stock, meaning that over time, they have struggled with certain things like maintenance.
Gaogane said that the railways has seen their maintenance decline, or their asset availability decline, stating that the company’s major assets, including locomotives and wagons, have been heavily affected.
“Assets here, I’m talking about locomotives, which are the pulling power, and then the wagons, which carry coal, ash and other goods,” he explained.
The financial figures presented before the committee showed a series of operating losses over recent years.
Botswana Railways recorded an operating loss of about P90 million in the 2021-2022 financial year. The following year, the loss was reduced to P45 million before improving slightly to P40 million in 2023. However, the losses widened again in 2024 to around P60 million.
Gaogane also outlined the company’s business structure and investments aimed at diversifying revenue streams beyond rail transport.
He told the committee that Botswana Railways established a property company known as BR Properties in 2007 to develop and exploit land assets owned by the railway company.
“One such development is the mall here that is owned by an entity called JTTM,” he said.
According to Gaogane, the Rail Park Mall project was developed under a concession arrangement involving Botswana Railways and pension fund investor Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF).
“The shareholders are Botswana Railways and BPOPF. We did not have the money to build the mall, so we brought partners to build with them. We actually get dividends, but after 40 years, it all reverts to Botswana Railways,” he said.
He added that the concession agreement still has 22 years remaining before the assets fully revert to the railway company.
Gaogane further disclosed that Botswana Railways also owns a majority stake in the Gaborone Container Terminal through a company known as GABCON.
“We have 64% shareholding, and Transnet is a 36% shareholder,” he said, referring to South Africa’s state-owned freight and logistics company.
The caretaker general manager also highlighted another regional operation known as Sea Rail Botswana, which operates through Namibia’s Walvis Bay port.
“It is an entity that was registered in Namibia at Walvis Bay port. It clears goods and brings goods. It’s almost like GAPCON, but it’s a terminal at the sea that is part of our portfolio,” he explained.
On operational safety, Gaogane said BR closely monitors incidents because of the potential risks associated with derailments and collisions.
“If we are unsafe, there are big chances of derailing the train, and that means losing products and possibly losing lives,” he said.
He identified the company’s main safety concerns as mainline collisions, derailments and level crossing accidents where rail and road traffic intersect.
“The level crossings are where the road and rail interface. One or a few times, it does happen that the human traffic and the train do clash,” Gaogane said.
He said BR recorded about eight derailments during the reporting period, with some incidents linked to severe weather conditions, explaining that the mainline derailments are primarily more weather-related and
Despite the financial and operational pressures, Gaogane said the company had made some progress in modernising parts of its operations.
He revealed that BR purchased 34 BSA wagons from China around the 2021-2022 period to improve freight capacity.
“In 2022-2023, when we were doing relatively well, we went past the million-tonne mark,” he said.
The railway company has also invested in skills development and compliance systems.
Gaogane told the committee that BR refurbished its training centre in Francistown and secured three ISO certifications covering environmental management, safety and quality standards.
“We’ve got about three ISO certificates, one for environment, one for safety and one for quality,” he said.
Gaogane said the company has also adopted alternative approaches to maintenance because of limited cash resources, pointing out that they are struggling a little bit with the cash to do maintenance, but said they have found innovative ways of doing maintenance.
One of the strategies he said involves partnerships with freight owners to support maintenance activities linked to transporting their goods.
The appearance before the parliamentary committee formed part of ongoing oversight sessions involving state-owned enterprises, where executives are required to account for operational performance, governance and financial management.