09 Mar 2023

Government has taken a deliberate decision to reserve some business activities for Batswana as a way of promoting citizen participation in the economy.

Such a decision was premised on the fact that such business activities were easy to operate because they did not need much technical expertise.

This was said by Assistant Minister of Trade and Industry, Ms Beauty Manake when she was responding to a question in Parliament on Tuesday.

Ms Manake said, as such, she was not aware that majority of salons in Gaborone West were operated by foreigners, adding records showed that all licensed hair or beauty parlours in the area were citizen owned.

The assistant minister told Parliament that the ministry conducted routine inspections to check for compliance to trading statutes.

“Such as an inspection was conducted at Gaborone West in April last year whereby four of the 33 business inspected were salons. Three of them complied with the provisions of the

Trade Act and one was warned for failure to display trade license,” she said.

Also, she said the ministry engaged the public and business community through various platforms, adding however there had not been a specific engagement with Gaborone West businesses.

“There had been several public radio engagements on the Trade Act and its Regulations about various provisions of the Act including sensitisation on reserved activities,” she said.

On the other hand, she said that since inception, Citizen Enterprise Development Agency (CEDA) had funded 29 hair and beauty parlours within Gaborone and surrounding areas to the tune of over P1.1 million).

She added that two salons and a beauty spa and a make-up service were funded through the Youth Development Fund (YDF) to the tune of P389, 286.85.

Gaborone Bonnington South MP, Mr Christiaan Greeff had asked the minister to apprise Parliament on businesses reserved for Batswana and the impact of such dispensation.

Mr Greeff also wanted to know the number of salons that were registered or licensed for operation in Gaborone West, arguing that majority of them were operated by foreigners.

The legislator also wanted to know the number of those who had benefitted from CEDA and YDF. ENDS