01 Apr 2026

The Minister of Higher Education, Mr Prince Maele has urged Tuli Conservation Trust to fast-track completion of paperwork needed to start infrastructural development at Bobonong Brigades’ satellite site in Molalatau. 

The infrastructural development in question would upgrade the then satellite institution into a fully-fledged institute that intends to offer conservation, tourism and hospitality as well as auto-mechanics courses at the initial stages. 

Tuli Conservation Trust will solely foot the bill of the whole infrastructural development which, after completion, will be handed to Ministry of Higher Education to run since the trust, by own admission, lacked the expertise in education. 

The mooted project, whose memorandum of understating was already undergoing rigorous inspection at the ministry’s legal unit, has been stalling for over three years yet without moving explanations, according to community leaders and the trust’s  representative. 

The trust has been knocking on the doors of the district leadership with the sole purpose of building them the institution. 

Kgosi Joel Masilo of Bobonong, who also represents Bobirwa at Ntlo Ya Dikgosi, confirmed meetings with the Trust in the past, but to no success. 

It was against this backdrop that Minister Maele propped the Trust, through their representative, Mr Morulaganyi Kokole, to move with  speed and ensure the project was delivered to the community. 

The minister expressed shock that such a magnanimous gesture stalled for over three years, especially that the ministry’s only contributions would be provision of teaching and administration staff, and sponsorships to students while the whole construction costs fell squarely on the Trust. 

Even though the project is yet to be cost, awaiting the design, which will inform the said costs, the minister said he brought the ministry’s administrative team to the site so they could make a decision on site over a project that sounded and seemed too lucrative to let go. 

“Why should we take long to make a decision? Go and tell your principals that we are ready… Build like yesterday,” Minister Maele said.  

However, the minister said he was only awaiting plans and costs to table before cabinet for approval.

He was upbeat it would not take long to approve and wanted to be furnished with the costs in order to appreciate the magnitude of the project. 

“This is an opportunity we cannot get anywhere. Initially we had this idea for Maun and if someone proposes this project for us this side and funds it, then we have to change our thinking,” Mr Maele said and added that he needed to engage with the community for their input. 

Presenting before the minister and his entourage, Trust representative, Mr Kokole said that the business in Northern Tuli wanted to build the institution as part of their corporate social responsibility. 

The project, he said, was meant to create an impact in the communities in their vicinity. 

“We realised that majority of our skilled and qualified staff came from outside this area and this birthed the idea of establishing an institution that will equip and give priority, in some way, children from Bobirwa community to learn skills that can position them to get jobs in our businesses,” he said. 

Mr Kokole said that they had already carried a feasibility study and with the green light from the ministry, upon completion of the requirements, would build an institution that would also provide accommodation facilities to learners on the 11-hectare plot. 

Meanwhile, Minister Maele and his entourage from the ministry toured Bobonong Brigades facility in Bobonong where he said that the ministry intended on scrapping the name brigades and replacing it with vocational centre. 

He observed that the noun brigade carried a stigma that needed to be done away with. 

Mr Maele said that part of the ongoing transformation was paying brigades students an equal amount of living allowances to those at other higher institutions.  The said P1900 living allowance would be increased, funds permitting, until it reached the promised P2500. 

Minister Maele said the increase in living allowance from the initial P300 to P1900 has seen a spike in applications for brigades. 

The minister conceded that the institutions they have toured so far presented challenges since many of them presented dilapidated facilities and out of use equipment. 

He said that that brigades should start producing graduates who could be self-employed and employ others in the process. 

To achieve this, he said that brigades would offer entrepreneurial skills amongst other things. ENDS