27 Nov 2022

The newly-opened Kavuru Training Centre in Maun represents a significant investment in Botswana and the future capacity building of the country’s workforce.

  Officially opening the centre on Saturday, Vice President Slumber Tsogwane tipped it to be a game changer in Botswana’s mining industry.

The center provides inductions, safety, equipment operator and maintenance training support to Zone 5 Mine in Toteng and also supports other Perenti group   operations such as African Mining Services and Barminco.

According to the vice president,  the centre boasted an artificial underground environment, additional artisan trade simulators and regularly trained mechanised trades for skills enhancement while on the job.

Through transferring skills to Batswana, the centre affirmed value addition as espoused in the Reset Agenda, he said.

The vice president said it was imperative that as companies  set up businesses in Botswana,  they prioritised transfering skills to Batswana so that in the end citizens also became experts in different fields.

To that end, in November 2018 government signed a human resource agreement with Khoemacau where the company, operators of Zone 5 mine, and all its contractors, was obliged to transfer skills to Batswana through robust localisation and training plans.

He said the facility would be an additional reason for people who desired to do business to choose Maun.

“Maun is truly blessed to have a state-of-the-art facility such as this one where excellent safety, quality and productivity outcomes are achieved through leading technology,’’ he said.

Mr Tsogwane applauded, Kago Seselamarumo, a Standard Six pupil at Maun’s Gxhabara Primary School, for coming up with the brilliant name Kavuru derived from kavuruvusa, a Shiyeyi term meaning winds of change. 

The name was testimony that the centre would cause waves across the mining industry in Botswana, Africa and worldwide, said Mr Tsogwane.

Giving an overview, Perenti general manager Mr Ron Day said the centre had inducted over 600 personnel since 2019.

He said through the facility, 10 Batswana women, who did not have any mining background, were trained in heavy plant operations from scratch.

They were now operating heavy plant machinery in Zone 5 mine, revealed Mr Day.

Batawana regent Kgosi Kealetile Moremi said the centre promoted diversification as Ngamiland had previously only been known for tourism.

She said with government giving permission for mining in Ngamiland, there was hope for more projects. “Mining creates jobs and promotes corporate social responsibilty and business opportunities hence to have this training facility in Maun is a good move because it could have gone to Khoemacau mine in Toteng but they chose Maun,’’ said Kgosi Moremi.

Expressing delight at the centre,   MP for Maun East Mr Goretetse Kekgonegile stressed the need for  workers to be nurtured in order to provide quality service.

He commended Perenti for training people with no mining background and others already in their employ. ENDS