25 Mar 2025

Parliament has passed the sum of P347 147 890 under recurrent budget and P2 659 182 923 under the development budget requested by the Ministry of Minerals and Energy for the financial year 2025/2026. 

Presenting the ministry’s budget proposals on Monday, Minister Bogolo Kenewendo said the electricity and petroleum energy sub sectors continued to be strategic sectors that provided energy to all sectors of the economy. 

She said power infrastructure for the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity including strategic petroleum facilities were critical to energy security. 

“The intention of the government is to develop adequate local electricity generation capacity to meet demand with surplus capacity for export to other member countries of the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP),” she said. She said a concerted effort was being made to facilitate and accelerate the deployment of renewable energy, with solar as the primary resource for energy diversification and sustainability. 

Ms Kenewendo said the country’s electricity consumption was approximately 4 800 gigawatt-hours per annum, with a peak demand of 680 megawatts and a base local load of 400 megawatts. “The electricity consumption continues to increase at about five per cent per annum with the demand projected to reach 7 000gigawatt-hours by 2040,” she said. On the mining sector, Minister Kenewendo said the legislative and policy development marked a period of success for Botswana’s mining sector. “The successful passing by Parliament of the Mines and Minerals Act along with the introduction of the Minerals Policy provide a strong legal and regulatory framework for the sector,” she said. 

Ms Kenewendo said the legislative advancements were designed to foster a more conducive environment for investment, ensure sustainable development, increase penalties to deter illegal mining and enhance the governance of mineral resources. “Other notable amendments in the Act include increasing the option for government stake in the new mining investment from 15 per cent to 24 per cent, which can also be acquired by citizens if the government has no interest,” she said. 

In light of the looming demand for battery metals, driven by the ever growing electric vehicle market, Ms Kenewendo said they were glad to pronounce that Menzi Battery Metals had recently been granted a mining licence to mine manganese in an area called Kgwakgwe Hill near Kanye Village. 

Responding to the minister, Boteti East MP Mr Keoagile Atamelang appreciated the budget more so that it involved the construction of a 400-megawatt power plant in Letlhakane since they needed employment creation and skills transfer. 

Mr Atamelang said he was happy with some reforms that government would undertake under the ministry. He was concerned by delays in executing some major projects such as roads due to delays anticipated to establishing quarries for mining gravel. 

To be more efficient, Mr Atamelang said there was an urgent need to speed up issuance surface and mining rights to allow for companies to access the necessary material on time and ensure roads and other projects were delivered on time and within budget. 

Mr Atamelang also said contextualisation of beneficiation law was important for the people in areas where mining was done. Currently, he said the communities of Boteti experience  development segregation.

 “Even though housing mining projects, the communities in Boteti continue to face challenges of saline water, power interruptions, which was not the case at the mines in their vicinity. We have cases of displacement and the compensation for such was questionable,” he said. 

Therefore, Mr Atamelang said it was necessary to develop contextual beneficiation law to avoid cases of Selebi Phikwe and Boteti where the communities in the mining vicinity have benefited less, adding that such a case was likely to have replica effect in Maun and Ghanzi areas and many others where natural resources were extracted. “The law will engage among others a localised development fund. Mines in the Boteti area must come together, create a bucket of funding to empower Village Development Committee, community cooperatives, trusts and local authorities as they are faced with financial constraints,” he said. 

He said through a developmental fund, community projects would be coordinated and funded adequately to be more beneficial, which was not the case today. 

Mr Atamelang also said the law must have first priority benefit clause, which would prioritise improving first the area where the mining activity was done. 

He said he was not undermining the current arrangement where minerals were benefiting all Batswana, however emphasised on first developing people in the mining area. Mr Atamelang said the mining companies must also localise hiring of resources by identifying and recruiting key personnel from the mining area, adding that such a move must not be viewed as segregation. 

He said consequences of mining activities and natural resource extraction must be compensated by creating mining museum within the affected community as such an activity was part and parcel of their history. 

Mr Omphemetse Kwapa, MP of Jwaneng/Mabutsane said he was pleased with Botswana-DeBeers new deal as it would be positive to Jwaneng and resuscitate the town’s economy. 

He said the solar plant, which was earmarked for his constituency would create employment and reduce current power interruptions, a situation that affected network connections, and general livelihoods. 

On village electrification, Mr Kwapa said villages such as Kanaku, Mahotshwane and Itholoke were some of the localities yet to be connected to the national power grid. He said in Khakhea, there was a quarry where companies used to extract gravel for roads and other construction project. 

He said it would have been ideal to allow the community to continue using the quarry for its benefit as rehabilitating the pit had resulted in the community losing a source of income. 

On Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Mr Kwapa said currently, Debswana has annually budgeted P10 million, which had over the years proved to be insufficient, calling for its increase to allow the community to benefit more. He said one of the projects that could be done through CSR was the Jwaneng-Sese road. ENDS