25 Feb 2024

 The multi-million Pula Selebi Phikwe Citrus project is expected to breathe some life into township and boost its economy after the closure of the BCL Mine.

The shutdown of the BCL mine, which was Selebi Phikwe’s main economic activity until 2016 had affected local businesses which had dealings with the mine resulting in many job losses.

“The citrus project is a symbol transformation and new beginnings,” said the Selebi Phikwe district commissioner, Ms Boitumelo Matenge in an interview. Occupying 1500 hectares of land formerly owned by Mmadinare Cooperative, the project which is the first of its kind in the country and Southern Africa will see a large portion of the produce exported to international markets while the remaining would be consumed locally.

Launched by President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi in December 2020, the project with over 800 000 fruit trees would not only boost the agro industry but is also expected to create spin-off effects that will generate other value chain business opportunities and create employment for the people of Selebi Phikwe and surrounding villages in the SPEDU region.

Ms Matenge said the project radiated hope and inspired the people of Selebi Phikwe to look beyond the BCL Mine and start over by setting new goals and initiating new changes that would make positive impacts on their lives.

“This project calls for mindset change because we cannot afford to make the same mistake by relying solely on mining because minerals are non-renewable resources that could deplete any time,” she said.

She thanked government through SPEDU, BITC and other parastatal organisations for working tirelessly to facilitate the project and see to it that it took off without any hurdles so that Selebi Phikwe and other communities in the SPEDU region could benefit from the citrus farm.

She said the Selebi Phikwe community should not only look up to the project for jobs but to form cooperatives that would create other spin-offs.

She added that the closure of the mine was an eye opener for the Selebi Phikwe community, therefore should avoid dependence on one economic activity.

“As the town leadership together with parastatal organisations such as SPEDU and BITC we are going to organise an expo where the business community and everybody in Selebi Phikwe could come and display their products and share information on how to tap into the citrus project,” she said.

Ms Matenge explained that existing businesses could use the opportunity to position themselves and see where they could fit in to reap from the major investment, encouraging those who had interest in forming cooperatives to attend the expo to get the right information.

For his part, the town mayor, Mr Lucas Modimana said they were busy positioning ourselves as Selebi Phikwe town to tap from the investment and had mobilised people to register cooperatives.

Mr Modimana said it was important to develop a business ecosystem with upstream and downstream activities in support of the anchor industry being the citrus project.

He said some businesses in town should be able to feed the anchor industry while others should create as many products as they could from the citrus fruits.

“We are currently forming four companies in Botshabelo and Newstance with the aim to turn our citrus fruits into many products, some will be making juice concentrates, lemonade while some will be making cosmetics,” he said.

That, he said would in turn create employment for the local communities and therefore urged more community based organisations to take advantage of the project to turn their lives around. He said Urban Development Committee made up of government departments and parastatals had also been instructed to map the business ecosystem anchored on the citrus project.

“This would act as an investor companion that would guide potential investors on areas where they could invest in,” he said. Meawhile, government’s effort to revitalise the SPEDU region economy which covered five constituencies of Selebi Phikwe West, Selebi Phikwe East, Bobirwa, Lerala/Maunatlala and Mmadinare did not stop with the citrus project.

Through the SPEDU, government continued to facilitate more businesses to set up in the region thanks to the organisation’s investment incentives which, among others, provide businesses in the region with some tax relief from 22 per cent to five per cent for the first five years of the business operation and 10 per cent thereafter. ENDS