12 Feb 2023

The volume of movement of both commercial goods and traffic through the McCarthy’s Rust and Bokspits border posts does not warrant the two to be turned into commercial crossings.

Debating a motion recently that requested government to upgrade the two borders to commercial ones, Minister of Entrepreneurship, Mr Karabo Gare said from March to December last year, a total of 2 771 and 2 742 vehicles passed through McCarthy’s Rust and Bokspits borders respectively.

“This means an average of just about 300 vehicles per month, which is much lower than the required number of between 2 000 and 5 000 for a border to be considered for commercialisation,” he said.

Mr Gare, also MP for Moshupa/Manyana, argued that for one to transport commercial goods through the two borders, they had to make a request from Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS), adding that on a monthly average, both borders received very low numbers of such requests.

He also indicated that commercialising a border would also need negotiations with a neighbouring country, which would also need to first consider commercial viability on their side.

On the issue of increasing times of operation for the two border posts, Mr Gare said negotiations between Botswana and South Africa on the matter were already on the table. Contributing to the debate, Vice President Slumber Tsogwane said considerations should also be made that commercialising the two border posts would attract expenditure for both resources and infrastructure.

“This makes it difficult for me to support the motion, but there can still be room for negotiations with South Africa.

We might argue that goods coming through are not enough to warrant commercialisation, but this may be because the borders are not commercial, maybe the flow of goods and traffic will increase when we commercialise them,” he said.

Mr Tsogwane, also MP for Boteti West, expressed his discomfort with the wording of the motion, suggesting it should be amended to include the word ‘consider’ so it did not sound compelling.

However, MP for Maun West, Mr Dumelang Saleshando argued that the word ‘request’ was in itself enough to indicate that it was a plea.

“This puts government in a position to either reject or agree, which is sufficient, so the amendment would not make any difference,” he said.

MP for Okavango, Mr Kenny Kapinga requested the mover of the motion, MP for Kgalagadi South, Mr Sam Brooks, to present statistics to counter the ones presented by Minister Gare.

“In that way we can support the motion, but as it stands, we risk building a white elephant where we could have channelled funds to other national needs,” he said. Parliament, however, voted in the majority to allow Mr Brooks to amend the motion.

Motivating the motion, Mr Brooks had indicated that commercialising the two borders would bring economic benefits to residents of both villages.

He said Kgalagadi South got its commercial goods from South Africa through the two borders, and business people were forced to apply for concession, which he said was bad for business as approvals could take up to three days.

He also said the two borders, especially Bokspits, needed to adjust its times of operation to close at 6pm rather than 4pm to be in sync with the opposing Two Rivers border in South Africa.

Debate on the motion will continue Friday. ENDS