Final salvo fired in local "power struggle"
Friday, October 18, 2013
![Kitso Mokaila PIC MORERI SEJAKGOMO](https://cdn4.premiumread.com/?url=https://www.mmegi.bw/uploads/imported_images/2013/october/18/php2BE7.tmp.jpg&w=400&q=72&f=jpg)
Kitso Mokaila PIC MORERI SEJAKGOMO
If the state was a cat, it would purr. Two key events in April and August have helped quiet down a six-year din from critics indignant at the policy shortcomings that kicked off the electricity crisis in 2008. In April, government floated a 300 megawatt (MW) tender for the expansion of the Morupule B power station by a further two 150MW units, following this up in August, with another for a 300MW to be fuelled independently and located anywhere in Botswana.
These two new facilities are expected to start pumping power into the local grid by 2016 and be complete the next year, marking a new era of futurist policymaking in the country's energy development arena. Six years ago, the words "futurist policymaking" were the opposite of thoughts on critics' minds who slated public policy makers, particularly the then Energy Minister Ponatshego Kedikilwe for a myopic energy strategy that failed to anticipate the regional power crunch of 2008.
These roads, which are vital conduits for trade and tourism, have long been in dire need of repair. However, while this development is undoubtedly a positive step, it also raises questions about broader issues of infrastructural management and road safety that deserve closer scrutiny.The A3 and A33 roads are not just any roads, they are critical arteries that connect Botswana to its neighbours and facilitate the movement of goods and people...