Grace Ashiru
South African President Cyril Rasmaphosa has announced that talks to obtain power from Botswana have commenced following his presidential visit to the country.
In a press briefing, Ramaphosa told the media that the Southern African country had shown a willingness to share extra electricity with Eskom, the power company in South Africa.
The sale of the power is aimed at strengthening economic and trade ties between the two nations.
During his remarks, Ramaphosa participated in a media briefing in Gaborone after the South Africa – Botswana Business Roundtable was completed.
Our efforts as South Africa to find solutions to our country’s energy problems would be aiming to enhance the capacity of our energy by also getting energy from our sister neighboring countries that have progressed on the ladder in terms of possessing a measure of surplus energy that we would like to tap into.” Consequently, those negotiations have begun. We desire to move forward with them,” said Ramaphosa.
Eskom is the one driving them here in our own country is going to start working on implementing that entire package of interventions right away, and we will play a part in the oversight of their work.
We are holding out hope that through various talks, we will be able to gain access to energy sources from Botswana and where there is a certain amount of surplus energy that they are willing to sell to us.
Botswana played host to the leader of the African National Congress for the duration of his two-day trip, which also served as a celebration of the 28 years of commercial ties between the two nations.
According to the most recent findings from statistical research, South Africa is Botswana’s primary supplier of imports, which in 2021 totaled an astounding R64.4 billion.
