Salakae walking on thin ice

The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Noah Salakae, faces a daunting task in fulfilling President Duma Boko’s directive that Botswana Railways (BR) must return to profitability by December 2025. Cash-strapped BR has failed to make profits over the years, with operating costs hitting over P250 million between financial years 2021/22 and 2024/25. The BR was established to run on a commercial basis, transport bulk freight, parcels, and passengers.For years, the organisation has been affected by operational inefficiencies. On top of this, BR is also currently struggling with the maintenance of its locomotives and wagons and has its coaches grounded in Mahalapye and Lobatse.Caretaker General Manager, Okitanye Gaogane, revealed in May this year that in its core business, which is freight, BR pushes about one (1) million tonnes of freight per annum. The entity needs to push 1.4 million tonnes to be deemed commercially viable. The BR assets' availability has also declined. Gaogane indicated that the major plan is to stabilise the operation of the entity and improve governance issues.This week, President Boko revealed that he had told Salakae that his head is on the block if the situation does not improve at BR. “He said the Board is frustrating him and I said do something about it,” Boko said when officially opening the Public Service Conference in Gaborone this week.According to Boko, he would rather be taken to court than see Batswana suffer on things that could have been resolved. He expressed concern that the government bureaucracy, through the law and policies, has shut out the private sector.“But we say we want a private sector-led economy. In the meantime, we close out the private sector. At Botswana Railways, the private sector came to the table of the entity on its deathbed and said we want to partner with you, we have resources,” he said, adding that a competent Board sat and said if we agree, they would be doing nothing.“They long failed. This was about power and assertion of relevance. We are running against time. Time has no casualties,” the President said. Salakae is also currently racing against time to ensure that another struggling State-Owned Enterprise, Air Botswana, returns to profitability. The President had also declared that Air Botswana will return to profitability on the same date.The National Airliner is, however, failing to return to profitability as it faces various challenges, among them unavailability of fleet due to the grounding of some aircraft, cancellation of routes and the mass exodus of pilots. The two entities have for long been dogged by legacy issues. The ministry has postponed deadlines of the two on several occasions when updating Parliament.

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Salakae walking on thin ice