Once upon a time, a Botswana president got as gravely concerned about the dominance of foreign (mostly South African) construction companies as to send out an SOS message to a rising Asian giant. However, what started as a well-intentioned intervention would turn out to be one of the worst mistakes of President Ketumile Masire. This sad story was ably told by the Minister of Transport and Public Works, Eric Molale (who took a front-row seat when that fateful decision was made) at the inaugural Engineering Forum in 2022.
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