Against the odds, Phikwe refuses to die

Phikwe mall PIC: KEOAGILE BONANG
Phikwe mall PIC: KEOAGILE BONANG

SELEBI-PHIKWE: Despite the fact that the town is now a shadow of its former self, a windswept hollow on the brink of ghost-status, Selebi Phikwe is holding to the few strands of hope remaining within reach.

The October 2016 closure of its economic mainstay, BCL Mine, left Selebi-Phikwe resembling a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie, a town emptied by a disaster, shops boarded up, homes deserted, the few remaining survivors walking about in stunned disbelief. For town mayor, Molosiwa Molosiwa, however, hope springs eternal in Selebi-Phikwe.  According to him, by the end of the third quarter, 1,239 new jobs had been created in the town through the attraction of investors across different sectors. This is against a target of 1,770 jobs.

SPEDU, the regional agency spearheading Phikwe’s investment and survival drive, is engaged with about 50 companies, some of them citizen-owned, in areas such as information technology, manufacturing, agriculture and construction. Collectively, the companies are expected to invest about P1.8 billion in the region.

Editor's Comment
No room for perjury

It seems some government accounting officers, sworn to tell "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing else but the truth" before Almighty God, may have deliberately lied during the committee’s vital work. If proven, this is not merely unprofessional; it is perjury, a serious criminal offence and it strikes at the very heart of responsible government.The PAC’s role is fundamental. After each financial year, it painstakingly examines how public...

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