13 Mar 2017

Minister of Transport and Communication, Mr Kitso Mokaila says an assessment to establish the extent of damaged roads and bridges due to the recent rains is ongoing.

In a live broadcast television briefing in Gaborone on Friday, Minister Mokaila said the costs of repair of the recent damaged infrastructure by floods could only be ascertained after assessment is complete.

“As you might be aware, government budget is approved by Parliament, hence we still have to take the same route,” he said

Mr Mokaila said he was aware that some roads have surpassed their shelf life and were due for refurbishment, while most of the primary, secondary and gravel roads have been badly damaged by the recent floods and many left  with serious potholes.

He said the Nywane Bridge on the road that connects Lobatse and Gaborone could not be open for use by all vehicles, but noted that additional interim solution was to erect a bypass  next to bridge for use temporarily.

On other issues he said the ministry was aware of other problems in the northern part of the country where the Nata- Maun road has been flooded, leaving it difficult for small vehicles to access the  road.

“The area is in the flood plain and I am informed that the water has stagnated in this section of road,” he said.

With regards to Botswana Railways, he said it was the ministry’s priority to enable the organisation to make Botswana a corridor.

He said the newly appointed board to the Botswana Railways should ensure that they fulfil the mandate to make Botswana a connection between the Southern, Northern and Central Africa.

“Even if calls for privatisation of Botswana Railways, we will do so in order to make the parastatal more effective,” he said.

Mr Mokaila said he was aware of the damaged railway line sections – 10km out of Lobatse, Taung, Pilane and other areas.

“I am happy to announce that freight train is up and running. There are about 20 freight trains that have traversed the rail line so far loading over 26 000 tons of goods. After we are certain that the rail line is okay, we may now start operating the passenger train because safety comes first,” he said.

With regards to Air Botswana, he said the company has been experiencing operational challenges on the less profitable routes as well as running an aging fleet.

He said the airline had a total of 562 staff members and aircrafts comprising four ATRs and four jets.  Currently, he said the four jets have been stationed, leaving the airline with only four ATRs.

Mr Mokaila said the target was to reduce staff to 350, while a target of 116 redundancies was set excluding crew. At the time, he said there were 40 pilots and 36 cabin attendants for a fleet of 4 aircrafts, whereas ideally 16 pilots and 16 cabin attendants could suffice for this aircraft fleet.

On the Department of Road, Transport and Safety, he said he was aware that issuance of licences for public transport was marred with problems.

For example, he said transporters were involved in dirty deals of hiring out their acquired licences and not adhering to rules of routes operation, sometimes leaving the public stranded.

He said the Selebi Phikwe Transport Pitso revealed a lot of irregularities that  need immediate attention by stakeholders. ENDS