14 Nov 2022

Selebi Phikwe Town Council (SPTC) and Namibia’s Tsumeb Municipality Namibia have recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding, through which they would collaborate in various areas to resuscitate the economy of the two former mining towns, 

  The two had suffered a great deal after closure of mines.

Areas of collaboration would include tourism development, urban agriculture development, education, private sector development, informal sector as well as local economic development.

“We have to come up with innovative ways to develop our towns.

 This comes at the right time when the country is undergoing transformation with an intention to adopt an economic philosophy of a private sector and export oriented economy approach as well as knowledge based trade. We have to identify shared opportunities for both towns,” said Selebi Phikwe Town mayor, Mr Lucas Modimana welcoming the Tsumeb delegation during the signing of the MoU.

Mr Modimana said Selebi Phikwe had a good number of upcoming industries and was quickly turning into an industrial town and therefore the collaboration would present an opportunity for investors in the two towns to share ideas and trade opportunities.

For his part, Tsumeb Municipality mayor, Mr Mathews Hangula hailed the relationship between the two local authorities, particularly that they had many similarities in terms of economic activities.

“There would come a point where mineral resources will be depleted hence the need to diversify the economies of the two towns to avoid a situation where the two towns become ghost towns,” Mr Hangula said.

He therefore emphasised the need for the two towns to look beyond mining and come up with innovative ways of diversifying the economy away from mining to help sustain the communities of the towns after depletion of the mineral resources.

He said he was looking forward to a fruitful collaboration which would yield positive results. Mr Hangula was accompanied by Tsumeb Municipality chief executive officer, Ms Victoria Kapenda and management committee member and also councillor, Ms Hilde Pashe.

Meanwhile SPTC town clerk, Mr Stephen Motlogelwa emphasised the need to diversify Selebi Phikwe’s economy away from mining. 

He said the town had been dependent on mining as a single economic resource for sustainance.

“The closure of the mine had a serious effect on the economy of the town hence the need to diversify the town’s economy away from mining.

Through the collaboration we have identified areas such as urban agriculture development, mining tourism, private sector development, education centre and informal sector which are the backbone of the economy,” he said. Ends