Final salvo fired in local "power struggle" :: Mmegi Online

Beginning in 2008, local households and businesses spotted the tip of what emerged as a power crisis of iceberg proportions, as the country's loosely woven supply situation unravelled with the tapering off of South African supply.Six years of 'blame-storming' later, government is very publicly indicating that it has learnt from its mistakes. Staff Writer, MBONGENI MGUNI, traces the tortuous path

If the state was a cat, it would purr. Two key events in April and August have helped quiet down a six-year din from critics indignant at the policy shortcomings that kicked off the electricity crisis in 2008. In April, government floated a 300 megawatt (MW) tender for the expansion of the Morupule B power station by a further two 150MW units, following this up in August, with another for a 300MW to be fuelled independently and located anywhere in Botswana.

These two new facilities are expected to start pumping power into the local grid by 2016 and be complete the next year, marking a new era of futurist policymaking in the country's energy development arena. Six years ago, the words "futurist policymaking" were the opposite of thoughts on critics' minds who slated public policy makers, particularly the then Energy Minister Ponatshego Kedikilwe for a myopic energy strategy that failed to anticipate the regional power crunch of 2008.

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