09 Jun 2025

The Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure is in the process of identifying all the entry points to justify the need and or inclusion of some projects in the National Development Plan (NDP) 12 when that time arrives, portfolio assistant minister, Mr Keoagile Atamelang has said.

Speaking post site visits of some infrastructure in Bobirwa, Assistant Minister Atamelang said the intention of the tour was to identify all the entry points amongst other things in order to prioritise whilst simultaneously justifying their inclusion in the NDP 12.

The identification and prioritisation of the infrastructure, especially roads, would inform the ministry on which ones needed developing and maintaining as opposed to the past misjudgments over the roads to develop and maintain, Mr Atamelang said. The assistant minister said his findings were that some roads, which could have been prioritised and developed to facilitate trade inter alia, had been ignored at the expense of those that did not really add economic value.

“The truth is that our roads are in a bad state… we don’t have roads and it is disheartening,” he said. 

He said in this process, the ministry would formulate an inter-ministerial collaboration so as to forge trajectory for better economic performance. For example, the assistant minister said that while developing a road from Mabolwe to the border gate between Botswana and Zimbabwe, the Ministry of Finance and that of trade needed to be on board to facilitate trade.

“The idea is that we could establish bilateral agreement with the government of Zimbabwe where we could actually have a bridge across Shashe River to facilitate trade between the two countries,” said the assistant minister.

When developed and actually built, the bridge and subsequent roads will feed into the actualisation of the road corridor that government wants to establish. The bridge would not only allow trade between Botswana and Zimbabwe, but South Africa too, through the Platjan border post, which is yet to be commercialised and fully utilised. 

The border post boasts state of the art bridge across Limpopo river. The bridge was built courtesy of SPEDU.  The linking road to Mathathane is yet to be built although already funded by the European Union. From Mathathane, the road would join the existing tarred one that would subsequently link Platjan border to the Mabolwe border.

“…And we also understand that we are closer to the Tuli Area and the Bobirwa area as well. These are in SPEDU and some SEZA areas and hence the potential to activate that economic trade,” said Mr Atamelang, who emphasised the need for proper infrastructure.

The assistant minister spoke of the need to have 24-hour operational border posts and emphasised that such border posts needed state of the art roads to lure investors, tourists and traders into and across the country.

“So, it is quite unfortunate that investors and tourists do not use some of these border posts because they are linked by gravel roads on our side,” he said.

During his visit of the Bobirwa infrastructure, assistant minister Atamelang and his entourage toured and assessed the tarred road to Lekkerpot junction where the bitumen standard road ends with gravel roads leading to Talana Farms to the north and another to Martin’s Drift to the south.

He also toured and appreciated the 16km gravel road from Mathathane junction to Motlhabaneng and about 30km of a battering gravel road up and down the streams and rock outcrops into Semolale. The entourage then proceeded to Mabolwe border post before going past Gobojango staff houses. ENDS