The decision follows the shortage of Unleaded Petrol 93 (ULP93) in the market. Speaking at Dr Kesitegile Gobotswang’s launch in Sefhare shortly after surviving a robbery at gunpoint in South Africa, Saleshando said he will be preparing court papers this week as the BCP sues the government for the situation he had warned the latter about in the past. Last month, Botswana Oil Limited (BOL) issued a warning to the public about a shortage of Unleaded Petrol 93 (ULP93) and indicated that the shortage is due to circumstances beyond their control.
“Currently, there is a shortage of ULP93 in certain filling stations. I'm going to take the government to court for what they have done to the energy sector, a situation I had warned them about in Parliament,” he said. He said government didn’t heed his warning, therefore, he is going to use the law to put them in line. Saleshando said he had taken the government to court and won in the past, hence, he is willing to do it again. Saleshando told a recent media briefing that it has become common to find that there is a shortage of diesel and ULP93. He said it is an inconvenience because most Batswana use ULP93 as it is cheaper than ULP95. BOL revealed in July that within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, ULP93 is produced exclusively in South Africa at the NATREF refinery which has been on shutdown since May 2024 for planned annual maintenance.
BOL also disclosed that it sources petroleum products from Namibia and Mozambique, which only use ULP95, making it challenging for these suppliers to provide ULP93. Additionally, BOL indicated that their storage facilities do not have provisions for ULP93. “We have a shortage of fuel even ULP95, it is not good to keep reminding people about their past wrongs but last year when parliament changed the law to give BOL exclusive rights to import 90% of the country’s fuel supplies I had the opportunity during the debate to warn them that it is a wrong move,” Saleshando told the media. He added that the government’s reason was to stop multinational oil companies from predominantly controlling the petroleum sector. “Their thirst was to build a monopoly in the petroleum industry. They went ahead and did what was not stipulated in the Botswana Energy Regulatory Authority (Amendment) Bill.
This is what we expected really, and we are facing a future where people are going to queue for fuel,” he said. Saleshando said they cannot sit back and watch therefore they have already notified the Attorney General about their impending court action. In 2022, when Parliament passed the Bill which amended the Energy Authority Act of 2016, Saleshando said the legislation was giving too much power to the minister in the running of the petroleum industry and that it would lead to government monopoly in the industry. Since April, BOL which is a state oil company, has imported 90% of the country’s fuel, while the majority of citizen-owned companies have the right to import the outstanding 10%.
The move was aimed at promoting effective citizen empowerment in an industry dominated by large, foreign multinational firms. Last November Saleshando asked Minister of Minerals and Energy Lefoko Moagi to state how the Statutory Instrument No. 99 of 2023, published on September 2023 setting the 90% quota for petroleum products would affect entities that were majority citizen-owned in the petroleum industry. In response, Moagi said the quota allocation was issued in cognisance of other existing citizen company players actively participating in the importation of petroleum products into the country, hence the 90% allocation instead of the 100%. The minister explained that the allocation has been issued in such a manner as to allow the remaining 10% to be for the citizen-owned entities to either participate or continue with their existing importation business.
