17 Mar 2014

The Ministry of Agriculture is in the process of adding the Mohembo Border Post to schedule four so that it becomes one of the approved ports of entry to trade in plants and plant products.

Responding to a parliamentary question from the MP for Okavango, Mr Bagalatia Arone last Thursday, March 13, the Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mr Oreeditse Molebatsi said it has since been established that a reasonable number of clients would wish to use the Mohembo border for trade in plants and plant products.

Mr Molebatsi said he was aware that plants and plant products were not going through the Mohembo border because it was not gazetted for trade in plants and plant products.

He said this was in accordance with the Plant Protection Act, adding that Section 10 (1) of the act provides that plants, plant products and other regulated articles must be imported into Botswana only at approved ports of entry listed in the fourth schedule and that Mohembo was not listed in the fourth schedule.

Mr Molebatsi said when the act was enacted volumes of crop products through entry points were considered to warrant gazettement of these entry points, but that in Mohembo the volumes did not warrant the border to be gazetted.

Mr Arone had asked why crop products from Namibia were not allowed to enter Botswana through the Mohembo Border Post. ENDS