24 Mar 2019

Ministry of International Affairs and Cooperation has purchased an office building in Nairobi, Kenya in 2018/19 and it is also in the process of acquiring another one in Geneva, Switzerland.

Answering a question in Parliament, Minister of International Affairs and Cooperation, Dr Unity Dow said the ministry’s strategic policy objective was to purchase properties abroad to mitigate against the high rental prices and associated challenges of renting for ambassadors.

Dr Dow said the ministry had decided to prioritise the purchase of office buildings and official residences as they tended to be more expensive as a result of their representational status.

She stated that the purchase of properties would be done in phases due to budget constraints, adding that the properties to be purchased during the NDP 11 included the completion of the construction of chancery and Diplomat Apartments in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the purchase of mission property in Germany, China, Nigeria, Japan and Mozambique.

Furthermore, Dr Dow said, “The ministry manages 22 Diplomatic Missions situated across the globe.

The 22 missions operate from 190 properties.

These consist of 22 office buildings and 168 residences for Batswana diplomats.”

She said from that, government owns only 57 properties, adding that the rest were rented at a cost of about P94 million per annum.

Dr Dow pointed out that of the 57 owned properties, 12 were chanceries/office buildings and 45 were official and staff residences.

Dr Dow further explained that there was a budget allocated to each Mission every financial year for the rented properties.

Furthermore, she clarified that the budget provision to each mission was on the basis of the number and cost of properties rented.

Member of Parliament for Boteti East, Mr Sethomo Lelatisitswe had asked the minister to apprise on the status of foreign mission houses and offices in terms of resources and annual budget apportioned to each office.

MP Lelatisitswe had wanted the minister to state the number of foreign mission offices and staff residences that were rented or owned by government and in which countries.

He further wanted to know if the government allocated a budget to each foreign mission taking into consideration if they were paying rent or not.

Furthermore, he wanted to know if government would consider buying offices in each country with ambassadors instead of renting.
Again, Mr Lelatisitswe had asked if it would not be cheaper for government to buy houses or apartments for its staff in foreign missions and when that would happen. Ends