Africa-Press – Botswana. The Minister of Trade and Industry Mr Mmusi Kgafela has implored Karowe Mine to be forthright in their determination to empower the targeted citizens.
Mr Mmusi, who toured the Karowe Mine on Friday asked the mine management to operationalise Citizen Inclusion Act.
He also asked if Lucara had a supplier development programme whereby the mine upskilled and empowered indigenous citizens.
For his part, he general manager of Lucara Botswana, Mr Johane Mchive stated that in an effort to develop indigenous citizens, the company had capacitated them so that they could be able to export.
“We want them to migrate to other opportunities,” he said.
The procurement manager, Ms Pearl Mapini said they had developed a database of goods and services that were reserved for citizens after realising that local suppliers were disadvantaged.
She said the ompany had partnered with finance houses such as ABSA to finance them to do major works.
Ms Mapini said the plan was to adhere to the list, adding that they sub-contracted 30 per cent of major jobs to citizen-owned companies.
She noted that in some areas where there was lack of expertise, they had to bring in foreign-owned companies to ensure that 30 per cent was actually sub-contracted to 100 per cent citizen-owned companies.
In addition, she stated that they were currently collaborating with Botswana Chamber of Mines and Local Enterprise Authority and that they were waiting for the guidelines to show alliance in terms of reporting.
Ms Mapini indicated that as a way of expanding their vendor data base, the company had advertised an expression of interest in 2022, whereby citizen-owned companies could apply to supply the mine.
She noted that they were currently vetting the suppliers.
Lucara Botswana’s annual spend was P1 billion and procurement spend was P792 million, she noted, adding that 88 per cent was Botswana-based suppliers while 46.9 per cent was citizen-owned.
Some of the citizen-owned companies mentioned included Petrohyper, which supplies the mine with fuel, Marung Development Services responsible for drilling services as well as TKM which had been engaged to do the stadium project in Letlhakan among others.
For his part, Minister Kgafela asked if Lucara was prepared consider inclusion of citizens who were historically disadvantaged by various factors without waiting for the guidelines.
He noted that Lucara citizen empowerment programme served a purpose, but did not go deep into ensuring inclusion of the targeted citizens.
Mr Mchive said it was a journey that they believed in, citing that the arrangement was that if a tender was given to a Botswana registered company, at the tendering stage it was deliberately stipulated that 30 per cent of the works must be sub-contracted to citizens.
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