20 Mar 2024

Members of Parliament have supported a motion requesting the extension of a Government Guarantee for Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) to borrow P1.722 billion from local financial institutions.

The motion was presented in Parliament on Tuesday by Minister  of Finance, Ms Peggy Serame, who explained that the P1.722 billion facility would be split between two long term debt facilities of P1.522, as well as two twelve-month revolving debt facilities (overdraft) of P200 million.

“Government found it necessary to support BPC with a guarantee to borrow from local financial institutions in order to pay overdue balances of up to P1 billion with major suppliers, procure spare parts for Morupule B 600 Megawatts (MW) power station amounting to P475 million, and funding for the power station at P247 million," she said.

Ms Serame said BPC’s mandate was primarily the generation, transmission, supply and distribution of electricity to domestic, commercial and industrial customers in Botswana.

Supporting the request, Kgalagadi North MP, Ms Talita Monnakgotla said electricity was necessity therefore, BPC should be assisted to source funds for financing electricity provision activities around the country. Serowe North MP, Mr Baratiwa Mathoothe suggested that BPC should switch from generation of power from coal to the use of uranium to generate electricity.

Mr Mathoothe said large deposits of uranium were found around the Palapye area in the Central District, which could be used for power generation. He said uranium was required in small quantities to generate more power compared to coal. He further said producing power from coal was more expensive compared to uranium.

Good Hope/Mabule MP, Mr Eric Molale said the country needed multiple streams of power generation. Therefore, Mr Molale suggested that greenfield projects should be supported, especially the use of limitless sunshine for power generation. 

He said that since the economy depended on power distribution, BPC should grow and generate more revenue. Ramotswa MP, Mr Lefoko Moagi, who is also Minister of Minerals and Energy, explained that BPC needed the money for operations and maintenance of the infrastructure. 

Mr Moagi said the Morupule B plant was on remediation exercise and therefore, the funds would cater for its maintenance. He further told Parliament that BPC was working with independent power producers in a quest to increase streams of renewable energy

He said BPC intended to be self-sufficient in energy provision by 2026 as well as to reduce price to consumers.

However, Mahalapye West MP Mr David Tshere opposed the motion,  arguing that BPC was ‘bleeding the country’.

He said government around the year 2012 guaranteed BPC a loan of P12 billion for Morupule B Power Plant, which he said, was still not working properly. 

He said despite being allocated P500 million for each of the two years of the Transitional National Development Plan, BPC also requested a loan of P700 million recently.

"I think what is required today, we should commission a Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate Botswana Power Corporation and the investments that were done in the past 10 years,” he said.

Mr Tshere said it was wrong for government to continue spending money on BPC while it could not work to the required capacity.

He further asked the minister to tell the nation what was exactly happening at Morupule B, and Morupule A power stations.

He said it was worrisome that Morupule Power Plant could barely reach half of its envisaged 600 megawatts production capacity after so much investment on it.

The motion was however adopted by Parliament on Tuesday. ends