An idea that President Mokgweetsi Masisi and his ministers have been publicly enthusing about for four years now is deemed as impractical by a country representative of a German foundation. To be perfectly clear, Thilo Schöne, the Resident Representative of Frederick Ebert Stiftung Botswana, wasn’t talking about domestic production of the much vaunted and long-awaited electric car per se but car production in general.
Making a presentation at the recent labour conference which was organised by the Institute for Labour and Employment Studies (ILES), Schöne recalled a conversation that he had with someone years ago about the possibility of car production in Botswana. He didn’t think such venture would be economically viable.
“First of all, you need a domestic market to sell those cars,” he said, implying that with its population size and consumer base, Botswana doesn’t have such market. “Why go to Botswana unless Botswana has the market to buy these cars?”
He added that there would also be need to consider whether the country has enough automotive engineers and specialised knowledge of digitalisation. With regard to the latter, he gave the example of robots that are typically used in assembly lines of large-scale car manufacturing plants.
Not once did Schöne say “electric car” but an audience that has been continuously regaled with accounts of an electric car revolution that is nigh would have been thinking of such car. Going back to at least 2018, President Masisi as well as a parade of now redeployed ministers have been making positive public statements about imminent plans to develop an electric car.
In 2019 and a few days after returning from Davos, Switzerland, where Audi had provided 50 electric cars for the annual meeting, Masisi told a ruling-party regional congress that he wanted Botswana to also develop an electric car. In that same year, then Assistant Minister of Tertiary Education Research, Ronald Shamukuni, told Parliament that government plans to encourage the private sector to venture into the manufacturing of electric cars.
“We have started the process of creating the necessary interest in this initiative, but I am unable to put any time frames with respect to when the different activities will be accomplished,” Shamukuni said.
An MP had sought to know steps that the government was taking to ensure that the country develops electric cars.
The following year, then Permanent Secretary to the President, Elias Magosi, told a Botswana Institute for Technology, Research and Innovation (BITRI) seminar on nickel mining that innovation in nickel batteries would be a breakthrough for the development of a Botswana-made electric car.
Last year, then Minister of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology, Dr. Douglas Letsholathebe, said that the production of the electric car would be done using parts produced by local companies. One such company has been identified as Baylee Enterprises which is based in Gaborone and was anticipated to have begun full production in August 2021. The latter was revealed by then Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Peggy Serame, in her own update to parliament. At the time (March 2021) she added that Baylee Enterprises was importing electric motors and other parts required to manufacture the car.
Schöne’s statement was remarkable in one other very important context: that a senior German official could dismiss the idea of Botswana producing an electric car could mean that the country shouldn’t expect much help in such endeavour from a developed nation that is a leading car-maker.
The long wait for the electric car has generated a cottage industry of mean political jokes. At the pre-event shindig of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit, First Lady Neo Masisi hit the dance floor wearing LED light-up shoes. That led cynics to remark that having failed to develop the electric car, the government had instead developed electric disco shoes.
A first of its kind in Botswana, the ILES labour conference brought together participants from various sectors to exchange ideas on how Botswana can rebuild its economy after the ravages of Covid-19.
