15 Apr 2014

The tourism sector has been encouraged to open up to government officials and desist from being so closed off and secretive.

Addressing tour operators in Kasane recently, performance improvement coordinator (PIC) in the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs, Mr Modiredi Nthaga said both parties needed to create an environment of trust.

“Government gets suspicious when you close off. You should allow us to come to your enterprises and even carry out surprise inspections,” he said.

However, he added that because some of the tourist establishments weree out of their reach, they had to depend on the owners for transportation which made surprise inspections impossible.

Regional labour officer, Mr Luckson Likokoto also concurred that the sector was closed off and did not allow government to peep in. “There is even a lodge in Chobe which we hear has avoided inspections for three years. Let me warn them that we are coming after them,” he said.

He also noted, however, that areas such as Savuti were hard to reach and proving to be a challenge in accessing them. On racism which often rocks the tourism industry, Mr Nthaga had less than comforting words for the culprits. “If anyone has been found to be racist, their permit will be revoked,” he said.

He, however, added that for some all that was needed was a mind-set change to learn to co-exist with one another as different races.

The objective of the meeting was to get feedback on the new Point Based System (PBS) that awards points for pre-determined attributes of immigrants.

Mr Nthaga explained that PBS which was introduced last year assesses work and residence permits.  He acknowledged that the system has sent the wrong message that Botswana is unwelcoming and “closed for business” but that was truly not the case.

“Labour laws, however, must be respected but we realise we need to carry out more education on that,” he highlighted.

Attendants requested that the immigration officials provide more feedback on why someone’s application failed so that they may know where they went wrong. Also there were complaints that applicants are made to wait for long periods especially when they are applying for citizenship which Mr Nthaga acknowledged was indeed the case.

In response, Mr Nthaga advised applicants to include as much information as they can when applying in order to be more convincing.  “What normally happens is that people only avail such information after they are rejected, but they can include this additional information in their appeals,” he advised.

One of the attendants, general manager at Flame of Africa, Ms Cornelia Rautenbach explained how much terror they go through whenever their permits need to be renewed.

“When our permits near expiration, the thought of renewing them stresses us out a lot because we live in fear that we might have to relocate,” she noted. 

Another attend who is a retiree said that she and her family live in fear of the immigration and labour officials to which Mr Nthaga said they should familiarise themselves with government officials and understand that government is not their enemy.

On retirees, he said that they welcome them as long as they can demonstrate that they have pension and enough money to take care of themselves.

“The aim of the PBS is to provide an objective measure of a migrant’s potential contribution to the Botswana economy. By testing each application against a range of fixed criteria, the system is intended to be transparent, fair and invulnerable to potential abuses,” he explained. The system can be applied to different categories of immigrants including employees, investors, students and retirees.

One of the downside to PBS, Mr Nthaga explained, is that it leaves out big investors who are not involved in the management of their companies

“Current investor permits are only suitable for small or medium scale “owner-operated” projects because most large projects are established by companies where owners are not involved in running the business therefore there needs to be an alternative route for large investors,” he noted.

Regional immigration officer, Ms Juby Senome emphasised the need for feedback on the system from the tourism sector. ENDS