Will a new era of China-Africa relations �power up� Botswana?

Morupule B
Morupule B

Darkness envelops the whole village. The sky is clothed in a jet-black blanket as dark as the vast coal deposits that lie beneath the brown earth. Only the glitter of the stars is visible in the dark of the night. The irony is sadly baffling. It is a tale of rags in the midst of riches, emaciation in a sea of abundance and poverty with plenty.

This is Palapye, Botswana’s hub of energy generation, set in some of the richest coalfields of the southern African region.  It is here where the highly contested 600 megawatt (MW) Morupule Power Station B is housed.

Duncan Modise’s* business operations are situated in this central Botswana town. He runs a butchery, bar and restaurant. The entrepreneur is losing an arm and a leg due to perennial power outages, a harsh irony as his enterprises sit on the huge coal belt.

Editor's Comment
Something ought to be done about deadly A3 Road

The accident which happened near Marapong village comes after yet another horrific accident which claimed 16 lives in July last year near Hubona. These stats don’t include other accidents where fatalities were not as many as the two.While several factors may have contributed to the two accidents and many others, many believe the biggest with that road is the bad state that the road is in. Unconfirmed reports in the most recent accident state...

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