27 Mar 2025

Several critical factors hinder government’s wish to open border facilities in strategic areas as it is a fact that cross-border movement is essential for socio-economic activities along the border line.

When answering a question in Parliament on Tuesday, the Vice President who is also Minister of Finance, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe said he acknowledged the challenges that may be faced by residents of Oliphant’s Drift, Ramotlabaki, and Phala Camp in accessing the nearest border post, being Sikwane.

Mr Gaolathe said that the challenge was not peculiar to residents of these villages alone but universal to all Batswana who might have to travel long distances from their homes to access border facilities.

He said the decision to open a border facility was guided by several critical factors including but not limited to the anticipated volume of cross-border traffic and trade activity in the proposed area.

Mr Gaolathe said they had to consider security implications and requirements for border control, bilateral agreements and mutual interests between neighbouring countries and the availability of financial resources to establish and sustain the border facility.

“It is an open secret that government is currently grappling with serious budgetary constraints and should this fiscal position improve sufficiently, and other necessary conditions mentioned above also warrant the establishment of a border crossing facility in the Oliphant’s Drift, Ramotlabaki and Phala Camp area, government will engage the Republic of South Africa on the matter,” he said.

Mr Gaolathe highlighted that currently Botswana had 29 border posts across the country, and these facilities required substantial financial resources for both development and recruitment expenditures. He further said in some recent years, government incurred in excess of P300 million per year for the development of border posts and an additional P15 million in recurrent expenditure for their operation and maintenance.

“The establishment and maintenance of any new border crossing facilities would inevitably place additional pressure on an already constrained national budget,” he said. He said due to constraints relayed above, there was no intention or plan to construct a new border crossing facility in Oliphant’s Drift, Ramotlabaki and Phala Camp area.

The MP for Kgatleng East, Mr Mabuse Pule has asked the minister to state if the government has any intention or plan to construct a border crossing facility for the people in Oliphant’s Drift, Ramotlabaki and Phala Camp who currently struggle to cross at the Sikwane Border Post, and the timeframe for when this plan would be implemented. ENDS