Mmegi: Firstly, congratulations on your appointments and welcome back to Parliament. How are you feeling?
Kenewendo: I feel privileged to be able to serve my country and Batswana in this capacity once again; different portfolio but capacity as SEMP and Minister. It’s good to be back home. I have always said serving this country was one of the highlights of my life, and career and so to have this opportunity again is a blessing. And I am really grateful for the opportunity.
Mmegi: Did the appointment come as a surprise to you as it did to some Batswana?
Kenewendo: We all serve at the pleasure of the President so one can never say they know for certain that they will get the call. I was just privileged to get the call. I can’t necessarily say I was expecting the call but I was happy to receive it.
Mmegi: For those who may not know, what has been keeping you busy?
Kenewendo: In the last couple of years, I have been busy more internationally and then I would come home every now and then. Most recently I have served as the Special Advisor to the UN High Level Climate Champions, working on raising ambition within non-state actors around our global goal of reducing temperature change. I also recently launched my book, Illuminate which was launched this week. Locally I have been serving as the board chair of Bank Gaborone and I had also served as a board member of RDC Properties and Wild Bird Trust. I also have a trust called Molaya Kgosi which we started around COVID-19 where we were giving out food hampers to the less privileged as well as school scholarships.
Mmegi: Having been away from government I am sure you had time to reflect. What are some of the lessons you can share from your time away?
Kenewendo: There is quite a lot about stakeholder engagement and maintaining relations that I think has grown. My network has grown. The way I approach stakeholders has changed. My appreciation of grassroots engagement is even more strengthened because when you are working globally sometimes it feels a lot of things are at macro-level and they don’t go to micro and I have had this strong yearning of changing that.
Mmegi: Anything you feel you could have done better during your time as Trade Minister back then?
Kenewendo: Hindsight is 2020 and you can always pin point things one should have done differently but I mean I want to live in the present and not necessarily beat myself up for anything I might have done wrong.
Mmegi: Are you still a Botswana Democratic Party card-carrying member?
A. (Laughs) I know the President said as far as he is aware I am a BDP, but right now I just want to identify as what I am: a very proud Motswana, happy to serve the Republic.
Mmegi: May we have a yes or no answer?
Kenewendo: (Laughs) I choose to stick to my response as it stands.
Mmegi: Does this mean we are going to see you return to active politics?
Kenewendo: At this point only God knows. I am honestly here to serve the Republic and Batswana: everything else only time will tell.
Mmegi: Moving on, the world got to see Botswana go through a smooth transition of power, which some quarters say has elevated our international appeal. Your comment?
Kenewendo: It certainly has. Someone said to me that a true mark of democracy is not only the changes that happen at micro-level but when there is a systematic shift in real government, and I think Batswana have truly proved that we are not just democratic, but we are democratic tolerant and able to accept change. It is inspiring to many others around the world.
Mmegi: One of the talking points around this year’s election was ‘Botswana being broke’. What do you think needs to be done to move to better days?
Kenewendo: The President mentioned this morning that he will outline in detail what the government intends to do in detail during his State of the Nation Address next week. But with respect to your question, there are opportunities for more revenue generations obviously around our mines and minerals but most importantly closing leakages around tax and improving efficiency of tax collection both domestic and imports.
Mmegi: How do you intend to bring your expertise in climate change issues to a fossil fuel reliant energy and mining economy like Botswana?
Kenewendo: It is a very interesting space but we have been talking about the energy transition and not necessarily disturbing economic growth. There a lot of financing opportunities around this and we can tap into those pledges given that we are a middle-income country. You know things are a little different when you are a middle-income country but there are opportunities there and I am very keen on taking advantage of those.
Mmegi: Any last word?
Kenewendo: This is a big ministry that is the mainstay of Botswana economy with minerals. I look forward to working with Batswana and all stakeholders in the space to making sure that we encourage more locals into the space and work on value chain development amongst others. I look forward to hearing where the opportunities are and how we can rebuild the energy ecosystem and what we can work on
