11 Aug 2025

Botswana’s Martin’s Drift border post has the potential to contribute the much needed revenue to government coffers, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Mr Noah Salakae says.

Speaking in an interview after touring Martin’s Drift/ Grobler border posts yesterday, he said the purpose of the tour was for him to appreciate the state of the border post first hand. 

“I came here so I could appreciate first-hand what goes on here, hear from the people working on the ground what their issues are and map out solutions,” he said.

Mr Salakae said it had become apparent that there was traffic congestion on the A1, mainly caused by trucks utilising the Martin’s Drift border post.

He said the high volume of trucks using Martin’s Drift border post was due to the high custom costs at Beitbridge border post (Zimbabwe-South Africa) on the side of Zimbabwe, hence trucks opt for the cheaper alternative of using Grobler/Martin’s Drift border post.

He said even though this was challenge, it could be turned into an opportunity for South Africa and Botswana to continue strengthening facilitation of trade & movement of people between the two countries and the rest of the region. 

Mr Salakae said government commit to upgrade Martin’s Drift border post to operate 24hrs.

“I am happy that there is already a project team consisting of both Botswana & South African officials working on making this border post a one-stop shop border post,” he said, adding that they needed to see how to cut short the time frame of the feasibility study so that by next year the project could take off.

He noted that even though Botswana was going through a liquidity crunch, things would improve so as to make the one stop shop border dream a reality. 

On the issue of illegal border crossings, Mr Salakae implored relevant authorities to work together and share new initiatives on measures to take to curb the practice.

On hawkers trading alongside the road, Mr Salakae said he was pleased with local authorities for working well with hawkers, even though where they are was not serviced land.  

General manager for shared services at  BURS Mr Kenny Labane said they had terminated  the contract for consultant that was engaged to refurbish and develop the border post.  

“This contract was to the tune of P40 million but now we have gone back to the drawing board to engage a new consultant with a new scope of work,” he said.

He said they were at tender stage of designing and the new plan, they hope to incorporate building of a new bridge, moving the sewage ponds, building new staff houses among others. 

He indicated that with growth of traffic, it was pertinent that Martin’s Drift border post becomes a one-stop shop border post.

‘We have close to 400/450 trucks crossing here every other day and we have had to increase our staff. Some of them commute from Lerala and these just shows you that we need to get moving and develop this border post,’ he said.

Mr Segodi Mogotsi, chief director, regional integration, roads department, Ministry of Transport from the South Africa said their biggest challenge was flooding. 

“When it floods on our side, we close shop, causing inconveniences to customers and losing revenue for our countries,” he said.

He indicated that statistics from their side show that Grobler/Martin’s Drift border post was the second largest border contributing to their fiscal bottom line. ENDS