On new railways and wry smiles

I must admit that I had a wry smile on my face when I read recent reports of proposals to have our rail network extended.

I say ‘wry smile’ because some 25 years ago, a quarter century, I had the honour of being the Board Chairperson of Botswana Railways (BR). 

I had approached the Ministry (of Transport and Communications) with my proposals of expanding the services of BR. I was called to a meeting with three senior officials of the ministry to put forth my views and ideas of the rail network expansion. I proposed that since we were busy constructing a rail line to service the needs of the proposed salt mining area of Sowa we could extend that rail line all the way to Kazungula so that we could become a transportation hub to the markets in Zambia, DRC and even further into central Africa.   The officials rejected my idea saying that the project would not work because there was no ‘bridge’ to cross the Zambezi River and until this was constructed nothing could be done. 

Editor's Comment
Congratulations Anicia Gaothuse!

The contest had 10 beautiful young girls as finalists and unfortunately only one could wear the crown.The judges picked Anicia Gaothuse. To all those who feel their contestant should have won ahead of Anicia for whatever reason, hardly; the judges found Anicia to be the best among the best, so desist from disrespecting our newly crowned queen on social media or anywhere else, for that matter! Each of the 10 beautiful young women had supporters...

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