01 Aug 2019

President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi has thanked Babirwa for their patience and peaceful engagements at a time when their area had been declared a foot and mouth disease (FMD) red zone. 

Speaking at a kgotla meeting in Bobonong August 1, President Masisi showered praises on Babirwa, lauding them for remaining calm amidst the FMD scourge that threatened farmers’ economy and culminated in restricted movement of livestock among other prohibitions.

He said Babirwa like other Batswana, were the architects of peace against sweeping tides of challenges.

President Dr Masisi informed a packed Bobonong kgotla that the area MP, who is also Minister of Defence, Justice and Security Mr Shaw Kgathi had consistently and vehemently called for alleviation of the effects of FMD in the area.

Another pain that afflicted Babirwa, the president found, was closure of the Selebi-Phikwe BCL mine.

He appealed to Babirwa to note that the move was a last resort following interventions to resuscitate an otherwise unprofitable undertaking.

President Masisi said government injected a lot of funds into the mine, albeit at different times, to try to save the sinking BCL ship in an effort to keep jobs.

 However, the operation’s unprofitability and subsequent pulling out of investors coerced government into closing the copper and nickel mine, he said explaining that BCL was only profitable the first five years of operation.

President Masisi said government also had to address other priority areas including subsidising water, which cost  in the region of P1 billion annually, as well as electricity and fuel among other things. 

The subsidies were meant to ensure accessibility of services to many, he said.

On other issues, the President said government was hard at work to ensure elimination of barriers hindering attainment of Vision 2036 pillars. 

President Dr Masisi said government would facilitate private sector growth because it was from profit making entities that it would garner revenue by way of tax.

He warned that failure to pay tax was a punishable offence.

President Masisi revealed that recurrent budget was higher than development budget despite Botswana being a developing nation.

On empowerment issues, he said government had taken deliberate steps to ensure women and youth utilised residential areas for business as long as such operations did not compromise human health. Ends