Govt roundly faulted for power shortage

MOGOMOTSI MOLOI
Correspondent | Friday February 8, 2008 00:00

Economist and businessman Nathan Kgabi says the power outages are becoming a pandemic similar to HIV/Aids and requires similar attention. During a discussion of the 2008/9 Budget Speech organised by the Botswana Council of Churches (BCC) at Trinity Church Hall on Wednesday, Kgabi said he was disappointed that Finance and Development Planning Minister Baledzi Gaolathe did not clearly spell out how much the government is committed to solving the problem.

The budget speech was delivered in Parliament on Monday. Kgabi, who is the former Chief Executive Officer of Metropolitan Botswana, said that he knows of a number of big companies which are on the brink of collapse because of reduced profit margins resulting from the intermittent power outages. 'If we do not have proper measures to address the problem, businesses will collapse and people will lose jobs,' he said. He stressed that the negative impact of the power outages on the economy will hit the ordinary man on the street harder.

Kgabi said the cost of fuel is too high and prices are going up every day, which makes it expensive to purchase generators as an alternative power source. The Botswana Council of Non-Governmental Organizations (BOCONGO) Programmes Manager Barulaganye Mogotsi called on the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources to seriously address the power outages saying electricity is critical to people's lives. He said the problem  should have long been addressed, but the government failed to act promptly.  Mogotsi stated that Morupule Power Station should have long been expanded, but even the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC)'s communications department is not doing enough to make the public aware of how bad the situation is. 'Information is key to issues like this.

At least if the public was given the necessary information about when and where the power will be cut, this would be better,' Mogotsi said. Reverend Rupert Hambira views the shortage of power as the biggest threat facing the country.

In his budget speech on Monday, Gaolathe explained that demand for electricity in the South African Development Committee (SADC) region has grown considerably faster than was forecast because high international commodity prices gave rise to increased mining activities in the region. He however also mentioned that short, medium and long-term strategies are being implemented to ensure that Botswana has sufficient power.

The minister pointed out that the much awaited Mmamabula Energy Project is at a stage where tariff negotiations are on-going between project sponsors, CIC Energy Corporation and International Power, with the off-takers being BPC and Eskom of South Africa.

Gaolathe said the Morupule B project, which entails the development of a 600 megawatt gross capacity coal fired project, is at a tender stage, with engineering procurement and construction scheduled for next month.