All Change

Sandy Grant | Monday April 7, 2014 10:38

I won’t do so because, much to my regret, I am poorly informed about the issues involved. I do note, however, that her appearance on BTV Wednesday’s evening news did clearly show the awesome strain that heading that particular Ministry can bring.

In that respect, she deserves our understanding. 

But whilst public attention was focused on the Minister it seemed to have escaped attention firstly that the reshuffle means that the Ministry is now headed by no less than four Ministers and secondly that it involved the simultaneous transfer of both the previous Minister and her Permanent Secretary.  Those of us with an interest in such matters need an encyclopedic kind of memory to know if there has been a precedent for such a dual move – but I would assume that this is the first time it has happened. Remarkable. There has also been the surprise news, as reported by the Guardian two weeks ago that the National Assembly, without even bothering to think much about it, had agreed that P293 million could be spent by the government in buying the massive, iconic building in central Gaborone which was abandoned by Debswana when it occupied its new premises near the airport.

 When it became known, a few months ago, that the government was planning to buy this building it was suggested by Charles Tibone that as part of the original agreement, now forgotten, the government had paid for the construction of Orapa House which De Beers/Anglo then occupied. He suggested that it made no sense for the  government to buy a building that it already owned! 

Two issues now emerge, not just the one on which the Guardian reported.

Firstly, how was it possible that members of the National Assembly could approve, without any notion of what they were approving, the purchase of this building at this particular price?  Did they get a bargain? Or were they ripped off?

But the second issue is the one that prompts even greater public interest, and of course, concern.  Could the National Assembly have approved the purchase of this building without fully investigating the circumstances regarding when it was constructed, and the agreements that were then made by the government and De Beers Botswana (or was it Anglo at the time?) as to which of them would be paying for what? Tibone’s recollection of what had transpired at that time needed to be properly investigated and a report submitted to the National Assembly before further decisions were taken about the building.

If this happened, there appears to have been no report which has been made publicly available. So the additional question now remains – is the government about to purchase a building which it already owns? Or has it already done so? But there is a further question relating to this proposed move which really does call for public comment.

The old Orapa House is a giant, superbly designed  building which is situated bang in the middle of the city and overlooking much of the government enclave and surrounding areas. I have previously suggested that inhabitants of Gaborone have been unable to relate to this building in the past probably it had nothing to do with their daily lives.  Nevertheless it was an extremely important element of the city’s townscape and its physical personality both as a symbol of the diamond industry and of a diamond country.

But we will all now need to start thinking again about this building and how the new phase of its existence might alter the City’s personality. Perhaps the change will alter nothing although some thought would need to be given to the usual questions relating to security. 

In the past, the security arrangements made by Debswana were discreet and, as far as I am aware, did not intrude into the lives of Gaborone residents. This situation may significantly change if only because the Office of the President may well have very different ideas about its need to control traffic. It may still be early days but the changed occupancy of this very important building will be of great importance to Gaborone – not so much in terms of the changes within the building but of those that may happen outside it.