Botswana�s increasing state ownership in the mining sector

Orapa mine
Orapa mine

I woke up sweating at what the Europeans know as the ‘devil’s hour’ - 3am. The previous evening I had just finished reading a taxation report.

The report was important and as I calmed myself I thought ...how pathetic, only an economist can wake up sweating at 3 am over the results of a mining taxation report. But the report has enormous implications for Botswana and all of Africa. It was completed by the reputable  International Centre for Taxation and Development (ICTD) in 2013 came to really significant conclusions.

Basically it said that only in Botswana in Africa and Chile in South America, which both have significant government ownership of mining  companies (Debswana in Botswana and Codelco in copper rich Chile),  have  governments  ever earned  a significant proportion of the revenues from mining. In those jurisdiction where governments rely solely on taxation systems to extract returns from mineral assets, they have gained precious little.

Editor's Comment
Inspect the voters' roll!

The recent disclosure by the IEC that 2,513 registrations have been turned down due to various irregularities should prompt all Batswana to meticulously review the voters' rolls and address concerns about rejected registrations.The disparities flagged by the IEC are troubling and emphasise the significance of rigorous voter registration processes.Out of the rejected registrations, 29 individuals were disqualified due to non-existent Omang...

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