The cost of these power outages to the economy cannot be over-estimated. With this clear and present danger, it is not only fair but also necessary for the authorities to explain to the nation the scope of the crisis and how they plan to respond to it. It is quite surprising that, at this late stage of the crisis, there are still muted efforts from government and the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) to allay the citizen anxieties. Admittedly, the national power utility has responded appropriately with energy-saving campaigns, which we believe will ultimately become embedded in the power-consuming public's psyche.But given the magnitude of the crisis, we sincerely believe the relevant authorities should be doing more to explain.
The public needs to be told how bad the situation is. The public needs to be told of the contingency measures we have in place should our main supplier, Eskom, decide to pull the plug on us. As it is, the beleaguered South African power utility giant is increasingly coming under tremendous pressure to review supply contracts with neighbouring countries. How long Eskom is going to sustain that pressure is anybody's guess.Yet our government still wants us to believe our own supplies from that country are fully protected under some agreement. But contracts can either be reviewed or cancelled depending on the supplier's own peculiar circumstances.It is for this very reason that the nation needs to be constantly briefed, particularly on what is being done to fast-track the expansion of the Morupule power station. However, from the experience of the past months, it appears the government has not been treating this project with the requisite urgency it deserves. As usual, the government's project implementation machinery is grinding leisurely, as if we have all the time in the world. This is an emergency situation and it should be treated as such.Notwithstanding government's lack of planning, which could have averted this crisis in the first place, the least that they can do is to move resolutely to address it.
