14 Sep 2016

The Selebi Phikwe Economic Diversification Unit (SPEDU) chief executive officer, Dr Mokubung Mokubung says over-reliance on government funding will be unsustainable in the long run.

Appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Statutory Bodies and State Enterprises (PCSBSE) on Tuesday (September 13), Dr Mokubung said they planned to address the heavy reliance by implementing income generating projects.

To achieve that, Dr Mokubung said they had developed a strategy for profiling investment opportunities in 52 villages in SPEDU region, and facilitating public private partnerships or joint ventures to develop businesses where feasible.

The SPEDU region comprises Selebi Phikwe, Bobirwa, Tswapong North and Mmadinare constituencies.

As a way of accelerating their strategy, Dr Mokubung said they were in the process of establishing satellite offices in Bobonong, Maunatlala and Mmadinare to facilitate the implementation of their activities in those areas.

“We currently depend very much on grants from government and this situation is unsustainable. We have designed a strategy to have income generating projects. The first phase was to bring investors, now the long term strategy is to generate income,” said the SPEDU chief. Dr

Mokubung said SPEDU received P8 million as government grant and about 60 percent of the money went towards covering staff salaries.

When asked by PCSBSE chairperson Mr Samson Guma Moyo to state the employment opportunities created by SPEDU since its establishment, Dr Mokubung said they were working on developing jobs around the horticulture, tourism and manufacturing sectors.

“We have engaged an investor who will carry out a farming project at Talana Farms. The investor has already paid deposit to secure the land after Talana Farms was liquidated. The investor is looking to employ around 2 000 people,” the SPEDU chief executive officer elaborated.

He explained that activities in the project would include horticulture, crocodile and ostrich farming among others.

Furthermore, Dr Mokubung said they were envisaging a horticulture projects around Motloutse River and another one near Bobonong.

Apart from horticulture, the SPEDU chief said they were looking fishing, canoe sports and leisure activities projects at Letsibogo and Dikgathong dams.

Dr Mokubung stated that the region currently has a population of 203 000 and a study commissioned in 2009 indicated that unemployment rate stood at 20 per cent.

Asked by Dr Phenyo Butale, PCSBSE member and Gaborone Central MP, about the impact of SPEDU in the region, Dr Mokubung acknowledged that the organisation has had little impact. However, he said it has covered some ground since it was turned into a parastatal in 2014, including facilitating the establishment of Pula Steel, helping in the setting up of a horticultural food processing pilot project in Selebi Phikwe, and the opening of Selebi Phikwe airport. ENDS