Africa-Press – Botswana. Out of the 696 farm workers currently employed by the Selebi Phikwe Citrus Project, 320 are Batswana employed on permanent basis while 110 are Batswana temporary workers.
In addition to that, 200 are seasonal temporary Batswana workers engaged for picking and packing while 66 are seasonal temporary foreign national farm workers engaged for the same purpose. There were no permanent foreign nationals farm workers at the moment.
Minister of Labour and Home Affairs, Major General Pius Mokgware shared with Parliament recently, also stating that there were 14 Batswana workers who occupied managerial positions and one Motswana at directorship position while eight foreign nationals also occupied the same positions.
Maj. Gen. Mokgware cited lack of professional picking and packing skills, which were not available in Botswana as one of the reason for importing labour from other countries.
This is a job or skill that is learned overtime and needs a lot of practice and muscle memory for one to be able to do fast and without damaging the fruit, Maj. Gen. Mokgware said, adding that the company was in the process of conducting on the job training, to impart skills to the locals so as to allow them to learn from the experienced foreign pickers.
Minister Mokgware said that Selebi Phikwe Citrus was anticipating to further employ at a rate of two Batswana per foreign national as pickers and packers in the coming season.
The project anticipates that it will need around 450 pickers and packers in total for the coming season hence would need 150 more farm workers.
Selebi Phikwe Citrus Project started five years ago in collaboration with various stakeholders who continue to work closely together, produces valencia oranges, seedless lemon and grapefruit mainly for export.
It has harvested 22 000 tonnes of produce in the current season with an intention of producing 40 000 tonnes in the next planting season.
Selebi Phikwe West MP, Mr Reuben Kaizer had requested the minister to share the number of foreigners versus Batswana currently employed as farm workers, the number of Batswana who occupy managerial and directorship positions respectively and the reasons for importing abour from neighbouring countries.
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