19 Dec 2023

SPEDU Board is currently not at full complement because it is being transferred to Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC).

As such, the current board members will be assisted by the BITC Board to oversee the operations of SPEDU as well as its rationalisation and transfer to BITC, says the Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Mmusi Kgafela.

The Minister was answering a question from Selebi Phikwe West MP, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse on the recent developments at SPEDU including but not limited to the decision by government to terminate some running mega tenders at SPEDU and or relocation of the same to the Ministry of Lands and Water Affairs.

Mr Keorapetse had also wanted the minister to explain the full status of SPEDU board and Caretaker CEO and implications for corporate governance.

Accordingly, Mr Kgafela said SPEDU was currently led by a Caretaker CEO and noted that together with the shareholder being the ministry of trade, a decision was made to relocate some tenders to the ministry of lands.

“The decision was taken due to, among others, lack of technical expertise, know-how and manpower within SPEDU and the trade ministry to oversee the implementation or execution of projects of that nature,” he said.

He said this was also to reduce workload to afford SPEDU officials time to focus on the mandate of facilitating investors in setting up in the region.

He assured the House that the EU project had not been affected and it would continue. 

This was after the MP asked if the relocation of the projects included EU-funded ones and to explain specific projects and tenders that would be affected by the decision.

Projects affected include works contract for the construction of phase I infrastructure in Bolelanoto and Senwelo Industrial sites, service contract for the procurement of consultants for the design and construction supervision of Molabe and Mothwane Dam and associated water transfer schemes for SPEDU agricultural use.

Other affected projects are the works for the drilling, construction and development of 15 exploration boreholes in the SPEDU region.

Minister Kgafela said the cost of termination for contracted or ongoing consultancy projects were yet to be determined.

“It should be noted that SPEDU in the past executed some projects and this left bitter experiences, which ended in the Courts and most of the bids for such projects were exorbitantly priced. 

This also resulted in some leading to investigations by law enforcement agencies as they had some elements relating to corruption allegations at SPEDU,” he said.

However, he said not all projects were executed by SPEDU, such as the electrification along Motloutse, which he said was done by Botswana Power Corporation while SPEDU only sourced funds from the Re-Employment Account. ENDS