By press time yesterday, Botswana and neighbours, Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa were staring defeat in the face, in their proposal for future sales of their substantial ivory stocks. Another proposal, for Zambia’s elephants to...
Last year the communities around Botswana descended to kgotla meetings to provide their opinions and insights on the management of the thousands of elephants that throng their backgrounds. In Seronga, on the Okavango eastern panhandle, elephants are...
Apart from a handful of insiders, no one has details on Choppies’ financial situation. The pan-African grocer’s books have been unopened for scrutiny since last year when the group posted its results for the half year ended December...
The political debate space has gotten messier and deviated from the ideal to the level of ‘getting power by any means necessary’. Elections are naturally a heated contestation of personalities, and if we are lucky, a hot contestation of...
Today, Africa has never recovered from such divisions even in the area of wildlife conservation and trade in its wildlife products such as ivory and rhino horns. African countries are made to oppose one another for no good reason. Therefore, it is...
Many therefore see fish farming as the only way to produce enough fish to satisfy the needs of a growing world population. Aquaculture and fish farming have become huge business and products are sold/distributed to countries all around the globe....
PALAPYE: The list of experts the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) has brought in for the $120 million overhaul of Morupule B is extensive. It’s an army of experts charged with one mission: ensuring the mistakes of before are not repeated in the...
Exactly 100 years since Batawana’s first relocation after settling in Ngamiland, Maun is staring at the worst drought in recent history. It is not just Maun. The entire south western part of the Okavango Delta is as dry as a bone. The...
Those involved in regional food security and forecasting, speak of a period known as “hunger season”, the critical period between September and March when the harvest peters out, at national and individual household level. In an ideal...
SERONGA: The Okavango Delta is experiencing its driest spell in recent history. The annual flood from Angola that is the lifeline of the Okavango Delta came very late this year – and with the weakest push. It is doubtful that the water will...
MAUN: Five hippos and at least 18 crocodiles are trapped in a small pool in the middle of Maun. And time is running out for the beasts because the water, which is their only shelter, is quickly drying up. Maun is facing one of the driest periods in...
The nation was shocked almost exactly two years ago. A raid by members of the Botswana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BSPCA), veterinarians, agriculture ministry officials and other animal NGO representatives stumbled on a donkey...
FRANCISTOWN: Revelations made by the director general of DIS, Brigadier Peter Magosi recently, when addressing a press conference, might see Botswana’s Corruption Perception Index altered for the worst. The Corruption Perception Index ranks...
But for the events on September 29, Choppies’ well-told tale of humble beginnings from a single store in Lobatse to a seven-country giant, would have remained unblemished. In future, those who chronicle Choppies’ history will of...
BPOPF is engaged in a tussle with Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa who earlier this year announced a P3 billion offer to buy MTN’s 53% stake in Mascom. The deal would increase his company, Econet’s overall hold in the local...
On the map, Metsiamanong (22° 26’ 3.552” S, 24° 13’ 54.156” E) is right in the heart of Botswana. If the country’s geometric centre point could be calculated, it would surely be closer to Metsiamanong than...
FRANCISTOWN: It’s a given that things have not been rosy for the convener of the BPF, legislator Biggie Butale and other interim leaders of the new political organisation. Reports show that even for the registration process, the Registrar of...
In 2009, government needed money after the global financial crisis burst into the country, crashing production at Debswana as well as other crucial mines and sectors. Despite the fact that the local private sector, particularly pension funds, had...
President Masisi is planning a two-day visit to Angola soon to meet his counterpart, João Lourenço on the touchy issue of elephant overpopulation in Botswana. Angola is part of the Kavango–Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area...
The latest figures from Debswana suggest the diamond giant will stop producing the shiny stones sometime around the mid-2050s. Should production reach that period, Debswana’s mines will be unrecognisable from what they are now. Jwaneng will...