Rebuild S/Phikwe into logistics hub � BB
Gaone Marumoloa | Wednesday March 15, 2017 18:00
The six-member team indicated that infrastructure is already in place in the town for undertaking major engineering projects, adding that the companies have already invested in the necessary plant and equipment.
“There is an elaborate railway network that could be used to ferry heavy materials from these factories to projects all over the country including the power generation expansions in Palapye,” BB chief executive officer, Racious Moatshe said.
He said the task team has also suggested the relocation of some institutions to Selebi-Phikwe such as faculties of government tertiary education institutions of agriculture and major institutions in Selebi-Phikwe such as the Botswana Musicians Union (BOMU).
He stated that the SPEDU region has massive amounts of water and fertile soils and would therefore be a natural place for setting up agricultural research facilities rather than have them in Sebele as is currently the case.
It was suggested that the area is also prone to Foot and Mouth Disease and that the researchers could be engaged more effectively on addressing “real life issues on the ground as opposed to the current situation where they are in Gaborone”.
“Using the already existing relationships with mining companies, tertiary institutions could set up a school of mines and metallurgy as well as related activities in Selebi-Phikwe,” Moatshe proposed.
Apart from providing an avenue for teaching and research, he said the area will provide some economic value in terms of small, but useful consumer demand for goods and services from students and the teaching community.
“Once activities have been agreed upon there should be a development of clear result-oriented action plan, and a monitoring and evaluation framework to clarify the roles and track the agreed projects and make sure they are delivered on time and at cost,” Moatshe said.
Meanwhile, the task team punched holes in government’s decision to place the BCL and TNMC under provisional liquidation.
The government insisted that the decision was made to minimise losses incurred by the government as the shareholder, as the country’s oldest copper and nickel mine was fast spiralling towards a state of bankruptcy.
It was also indicated that the mine had become uneconomic to operate mainly due to the decline in copper and nickel prices.
However, the task team believes that the closure of BCL and TNMC could have been conducted in a better way than what has happened.
“The abrupt closure of the mine did not put into consideration important procedures to follow when closing an organisation such as a stakeholder consultative strategy, a mine closure rehabilitation plan and a communications plan,” Moatshe said.
The team insists that there could have been other more important steps taken to avoid the abrupt closure, adding that this would have minimised the socio-economic and environmental implication around the closure from the provisional liquidation.
According to the team, an important aspect of this would have been the conduct of a socio-economic and an environmental study of the closure of BCL.
“The impact of the closure is unfolding over time and government is mitigating some of the negative effects of the closure,” Moatshe said.
Based on these findings, the task team felt that the liquidation of BCL ought to be treated as a national crisis warranting the establishment of a multi-disciplinary, multi-stakeholder committee under the coordination of the newly appointed coordinator for the Economic Revitalisation Programme for Selebi-Phikwe to chart an economic revival strategy for BCL.