Numerous reasons were offered by the government through Botswana Power Corporation why the Morupule B power plant project has delayed, leading to perpetual load shedding. Logistics - typhoon at sea, strike action in SA, delays in Provision of Commissioning Power, challenges encountered During Commissioning of Units (1 to 3), leaks on Primary and Secondary Air Ducts (Units 1 to 3), non-Compliance to Safety Measures for Work at Height on Boiler 4 Construction and outages on Transmission Grid (Forced & Planned). Nothing about the dishonesty in the award of the tender and the associated bogus and poor workmanship was mentioned.
The load shedding resulting from poor planning, lack of political-economic foresight and dubious dealing in the Morupule B power plant project have come at a high cost to the business economy and social life of Batswana. As is usually the case with many other things that go wrong in this country, no one was prepared to take responsibility. For a long time, about 80 percent of Botswana's electricity was imported from South Africa's public enterprise, Eskom (70 percent), and other neighbouring countries (Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia). About 20 percent of domestic power production was generated by an unreliable nearly 30-year old Morupule "A" Power Station plant in the vicinity of Palapye, operated by Botswana Power Corporation. Debswana operates the nearby Morupule Colliery to supply coal to the plant. Solar photovoltaic and wind-generated electricity, albeit important to satisfying the power need in remote areas, contributed a tiny fraction of about one percent to the total energy supply.
