06 Dec 2023

The Lobatse Leather Park Project has been included in the Transitional National Development Plan (TNDP) and is expected to be completed in the last quarter of 2024/25 financial year.

Answering a question on behalf of the Minister of Entrepreneurship, the Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Mr Mabuse Pule told Parliament that the project would be implemented in three stages.

He said phase one entailed the resuscitation of the Lobatse tannery and the development of an effluent treatment plant infrastructure to manage the resultant solid and liquid waste.

Mr Pule said phases two and three which were the intermediate and final phases of the project will be implemented within the Lobatse Special Economic Zone site referred to as the Meat and leather city.

He said it will include the infrastructure for post tanning right through to finished leather and production of leather goods.

Mr Pule said preliminary works to pave way for infrastructure development were started in May this year with three citizen companies awarded de-bushing works tenders and completed works in June.

He said in July, two other companies were awarded tenders for fencing and were expected to complete works in December.

Mr Pule told Parliament that government was worried about delays in implementation. He said the project would be delivered through the development manager model which meant it would be expedited and delivered within the timelines indicated.

He was responding to a question from Kgalagadi South MP Mr Samuel Brooks who wanted to know how government intended to operationalise the long overdue leather park project given that the initial assigned implementing agency had been transferred to the Ministry of Entrepreneurship.

He was also interested in the timelines committed to ensure that the project got off the ground. Ends