20 Mar 2018

Parliament has learnt that government has injected a total of P95.3 million into the Selebi Phikwe Economic Diversification Unit (SPEDU).

The Assistant Minister of Trade and Industry Mr Biggie Butale, who was answering a question in Parliament on Monday, said of the total, P29.7 million had been approved for the 2017/18 financial year.

Stating the amount of funds used to run the organisation, he said in 2013/14 the sum of P8.6 million was used while P7.9 million was used in 2014/15.

In 2015/16 and 2016/17 funds amounting to P16.9 million and P27.4 million respectively were used, whereas in the 2017/18 financial year P29.7 million had been budgeted for and approved, he disclosed. Mr Butale added that SPEDU had a staff complement of 29 employees against a total approved structure of 46, explaining that 17 positions were vacant. He said the organisation had six departments namely, executive office, strategic projects, investment promotion, human resources, finance and procurement as well as community economic facilitation.

In addition, he indicated that SPEDU had created a total of 658 jobs distributed among 15 different companies.

MP for Selebi Phikwe West, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse had asked how much the government had injected into the unit since its inception, as well as how much was being used to run the organisation. He had also wanted the minister to state the staff complement and the organisation’s departments.

Further, Mr Keorapetse had wanted to know the number of jobs SPEDU had helped create. BOPA