Africa-Press – Botswana. The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Mr Noah Salakae says Botswana Railways (BR) is currently undergoing transformation, making it too early to project whether it will turn a profit during the current financial year.
Answering a question in Parliament on Monday, Mr Salakae however said the ministry remained hopeful that the ongoing transformation would lead to improvements or a recovery in BR’s performance. The minister said BR was in the process of implementing vital recovery and resourcing measures aimed at restoring its operational capacity and positioning the business on a sustainable path.
He highlighted that a key focus was the rehabilitation of locomotives and wagons, which were critical for enhancing service delivery and increasing freight handling capacity. Mr Salakae added that these measures were not merely technical but strategic investments in the backbone of the national logistics system.
He said it was expected that the improvements currently underway would begin to produce tangible results by the end of this calendar year. Also, the Minister said a key lesson from this process was the importance of proactive planning and prioritising routine and preventative maintenance.
Furthermore, Mr Salakae stressed the need to keep pace with evolving technologies to improve safety, efficiency and overall performance within the organisations. He said since BR transformation was ongoing, it was difficult to decide if privatisation was viable. The minister said should privatisation be considered, the final decision would rest with Parliament.
He was responding to a question from Kgatleng West MP, Dr Unity Dow, who had asked whether BR was expected to make a profit this year, and if so, what lessons other State-Owned Enterprises could learn from BR’s example. She said conversely, if profit was not anticipated, when might BR turn a profit and whether there were plans to privatise the entity.
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