The idea of writing a feature article about some snip tailed male lion came into my mind in December 2020. Although it was mainly an excuse for me to travel, I believed it was going to be an important story that should change the local tourists’...
The question of who discovered Omicron is one of high importance in scientific and academic circles. It demonstrates scientific prowess in a particular country, and in an age where countries’ competitiveness is being weighed by how they can monitor...
Rather than raw greed, local authorities believe the increase in victims of cryptocurrency and forex scams is being driven by poor financial literacy in the country.Scammers coast past the country’s existing laws and safeguards by using the...
A year before the now famous discovery of the ‘three shiny stones’ in Motloutse River that eventually led to the explosion of diamond mining activities in the 1970s, a less high profile mineral had been found in the country’s south...
Known as the BCL Sysmin Re-employment Account (REA), the fund was created by a partnership between government and the European Union in 1991. The REA received repayments of loans by BCL and Tati for preferential credit extended by the European Union....
It has been five years since the BCL Group was placed under provisional liquidation by the High Court due to its non-profitability, rendering thousands of workers jobless in the process.The BCL Group operated BCL Mine in Selebi-Phikwe and Tati Nickel...
SELEBI-PHIKWE: Businesses in the once high-flying town have learnt the humbling lesson of depending on a single economic actor for their livelihoods. BCL Mine, directly and indirectly, supported both large and small businesses, with one study from...
Karabo Gaborone, 26Gaborone is not so enthusiastic about the planned reopening of the BCL Mine. She argues that it will take a while before the mine re-opens. According to her, the focus should now be on how the government can help deal with the...
SELEBI-PHIKWE: As much as reports of the impending reopening of BCL Mine have lifted the mood in the town and ushered in much-needed hope for the thousands of former workers, the positive news has also triggered harsh memories of October 8, 2016,...
The drinking holes are the heartbeat of the town’s social lifestyle. It is there that one can hear stories about the state of life and times of any town. On a rainy Sunday night, the Mmegi news crew barhopped through the nightclubs and speakeasies...
Last Sunday afternoon, many people in the town watched with nostalgic admiration and hope, as smoke rose out of the BCL Mine area. The smoke could be seen over 20km away from Phikwe. The black smoke spewed from the mine’s tailings dump fused with a...
Those who took the decision to close are now shouting the loudest in desperate attempts to accrue adulations for purportedly reopening the mine. We need to put things in proper perspective so as disabuse them from their dishonest mischief. The...
A few days later BCL Mine, which was the lifeblood of the town I grew up in called Selebi-Phikwe, was closed.At least 5,000 direct jobs disappeared, many more indirect jobs suffered, companies closed down, unemployment skyrocketed, suicides were...
Derek de la Harpe, Wilderness Holdings’ commercial director, remembers how the business believed it could withstand the impact of the pandemic when COVID-19 first arrived in Botswana last March. While various sectors of the economy knew that...
The list of items that have increased this year is lengthy and exhausting. From the sharp jump in general prices triggered by the increase in Value Added Tax (VAT) and the fuel levy in April to higher Botswana Housing Corporation rentals and the...
“Countries with few or no vaccine supply constraints should consider the issues of global equity when making policy decisions about vaccinating children and adolescents,” WHO said in a statement on Wednesday.“In the context of ongoing global...
In the wake of the damning results of the Auditor General’s findings into the millions of pula misspent, wasted and abused in the first eight months of the pandemic, more scrutiny is being piled onto how fiscal authorities monitor public...
On Monday, the Presidential COVID-19 Task Force announced that the entire country had ‘gone green’, representing the first time this year that COVID-19 cases have fallen below 10 per 100,000 this year.For Batswana who endured the harshest winter...
Last week, the Botswana delegation at the global UN climate summit in Glasgow signed a commitment, along with more than 40 other countries, pledging to ease the country’s use of coal. Critically, however, the local delegation declined to sign a key...
Eunice Ntobedzi has enjoyed an illustrious career. A graduate of the University of Pretoria and following sponsorship from the UK government via a Chevening scholarship, Ntobedzi was awarded her MSc in Management (Enterprise & Business Growth) by the...