Tati Nickel mine has vowed to continue with projects that are aimed at uplifting the lives of people in areas that it operates within despite the challenging global economic conditions.
The company has so far splashed tens of millions in Corporate Social Responsibility projects ranging from business development, education and health within a 50-kilometer radius of Tati Nickel mine.
“It is our intention to continue to engage communities in this area,” General Manager of the Tati Nickel Mine, Sebetele Sebetela, said, adding that “our intention is to go where the need is”.
Over the last three year, the company has invested heavily in the area ÔÇöincluding some innovative programmes aimed at donating computers to secondary schools with the view of getting the students ready for the digital world much earlier.
“We are also involved in some business aspects and the intention is to improve the level of engagement between the business and the mine,” he said.
The involvement of the mine in business development has seen some job creation initiatives such as in tannery project and some other agricultural projects leading to the promoters creating jobs in their areas.
“These people are sustaining themselves. And where there are some opportunities we will work with them,” he added.
He said that they have some outstanding projects in areas such as Matshelagabedi and Matsiloje that involve factory shells and some agricultural projects.
“As a result of that in terms of our spending power, a good percentage is done here in Botswana. I would say 70 percent of spending is either with Botswana registered companies or with Botswana owned companies,” Sebetela said.
Further, the mine has also played a bigger role in the property development in Francistown city as it has encouraged Batswana property developers to come up with robust ideas while renting buildings from them.
However, some of the property developments were affected as the global economic crunch, which started to affect the mine as some of the employees were asked to go on a voluntary separation.