30 Mar 2025

In anticipation of expanding operations and creating additional employment, the Zutshwa Salt Project is drilling five additional brine boreholes to augment the existing two. 

Responding to a Parliamentary question recently on behalf of the Minister of Minerals and Energy, the Assistant Minister of Trade and Entrepreneurship, Mr Baratiwa Mathoothe, said the expansion project also involved the construction of two larger holding ponds and 10 additional crystallisation ponds.

He said once the entire expansion project was completed, it would produce 400 tonnes per month and create 100 jobs for the Zutshwa community.

Mr Mathoothe noted that the Zutshwa Salt Mine was a community-based project operated by the Haa-Qhing Conservation Trust in Zutshwa village, located in the Kgalagadi North constituency. 

He explained that the Rural Industrial Innovation Centre (RIIC) initiated the Zutshwa Salt Project in 1989, with assistance from the Cooperation for Research Development and Education (CORDE). 

He stated that in August 2014, the project was adopted and revitalised by the Office of the President under the Poverty Eradication Programme, with the support of the Rural Development Council (RDC). 

The assistant minister said as part of the entrepreneurship and business development initiatives in 2022, the RDC conducted an enterprise diagnostic through the Local Enterprise Authority to review the Zutshwa Salt Project. 

This assessment, he said, aimed to evaluate its business model and determine its financial viability. 

Kgalagadi North M, Mr Reason Lekutlanye had asked the minister to inform Parliament about the upgrading of the Zutshwa Salt Pan Mine, with the intention of creating employment in Kgalagadi North. ENDS