Botswana Government is currently spending billions of Pula in large infrastructure development projects in Palapye.
One project is the construction of the multi-billion Pula University of Science and Technology, while the other project is that which is known as Morupule B.
Equally an ambitious multi-billion Pula project, Morupule B is a project intended to enhance Botswana’s self-sufficiency in the front of energy, especially in the face of dwindling and increasingly unreliable supplies from South Africa ÔÇô a country that today takes care of close to 80 percent of Botswana’s electricity needs.
Both of these projects are highly technical in both design and construction and it therefore makes sense that Botswana authorities have found it fit to engage foreign contractors with proven track records to carry them out.
But given the amount of money that Botswana Government and or its agencies like Botswana Power Corporation will be spending it makes sense for Batswana and Batswana owned companies, especially in the vicinity of Palapye to at least hope to be able to scrounge the crumbs from these huge projects.
It would be a serious indictment on the sincerity of Government to economically empower Batswana were the people of Palapye to be reduced to by-standers and or spectators in the face of such massive projects the bills of which are footed by their Government.
We call on Government to make interventions to convince the major contractors undertaking these projects to involve citizens.
There are many small lodges and accommodation spaces in Palapye that could be rented out by these large multi-nationals that have descended on Palapye.
Utilising such accommodation would not only empower the local economy, which is predominantly citizen, it would also go a long way to inculcating a sense of ownership of these projects among the residents in Palapye as well as in the localities.
The Chinese companies who are heavily involved in these projects are notorious for shutting out citizens and resisting all attempts on them to source even the most basic services and inputs from locals. This has the negative effects of undermining government efforts to use the development and procurement budget to empower citizens and allow them room to have a role to play in the mainstream of their economy.
In many other instances where they undertook comparable projects, the Chinese contractors would not even make attempts to rent accommodation from locals even when such accommodation was available.
We have in the past called for a citizen economic empowerment law.
In the absence of such a law, we only rely on the goodwill and mercy of those companies that would have won projects.
It is worth noting that in the face of today’s relentless international capitalism such goodwill is very difficult to come by. We can no longer afford to be permissive on this issue.
Palapye goes to show that the need for such a law has never been greater.
That said, we still hope that Botswana Government will use its influence on contractors to ensure that the economy benefits directly from the large projects that are fast changing the landscape of that small town/village.
