Scores of Indian nationals are expected to arrive to add manpower at Botswana Power Corporation (BPC)’s troubled Morupule B power station, The Telegraph learnt this week. The reports were confirmed by General Secretary of the Botswana Power Corporation Workers Union, Bahithetswe Mantswe.
Mantswe indicated that the union has received reports that over 350 Indians are expected to arrive at Morupule in the coming weeks.
“If the allegations are true it will be an embarrassment because the company has enough manpower including the locals and I think the numbers are fine,” he said.
┬áOn the latest development regarding the condition of Morupule B technical problems, Mantswe said “currently the situation is stable.”He said so far about three units are running smoothly without any problem and the fourth unit is also expected to be in operation probably next month as planned.
He said although the three units might all be fully operational this does not mean that everything has been normalized until they reach a certain stage as the union can publicly say load shedding is gone.
“Unit one still needs to be attended to though it is running but hopefully it will be attended to before it breaks down all together” he said.
For its part, Botswana Confederation of Commerce Industry and Manpower (BOCCIM) has broken its silence and called on the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) to assure the nation that frequent power outages will be a thing of the past as winter season is approaching.
Speaking in an interview, BOCCIM President Lekwalo Mosienyane said “we have noticed that there are some improvements lately but the million dollar question that remains is how long Morupule B will sustain itsself. BPC needs to assure the nation that no power outages will happen as soon as we approach winter season.”
Mosienyane also called on BPC to come out openly and share with the nation its future plans about electricity “because we can no longer operate in a vacuum.”
He said currently the economy is growing and therefore there is need to assure the business community that there will no longer be prolonged power outages which have since affected business operations badly.
But BPC assured the public that it does not anticipate any load shedding during the winter season as its two units are fully operational while the other two units are expected to be fully operational next month.
BPC spokesperson Spencer Moreri told the publication that his organization does not anticipate any power cuts during this winter season “and everything thing is going according to the plan.”
“So far our two units 1 and 2 are in full operation and the other two units 3 and 4 are also expected to be fully operational end of next month”.
Moreri added that sometime this month unit 3 is expected to be operating in full capacity as predicted and the fourth unit will also be running to fully capacity by the end of next month “which is good news to the public as well as to the corporation.”
Moreri expressed hope “that everything will go according to their plan and as scheduled.”
He appealed to members of the public that to be responsible and use electricity responsibly ┬á“because no one wants to be reminded of ┬ágoing back to the old days where we used to have rapid power cuts all over the country which was too bad.”
