29 Jan 2025

Zutshwa Salt Project which is operated by the trust from the village has abundant potential to create more jobs for the country if given the support, Assistant Minister of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Mr Ignatius Moswaane has said.

Mr Moswaane was touring the project accompanied by the MP for Kgalagadi North, Mr Reason Lekhutlane and the village leadership.

The project produces coarse salt and salt block at Zutshwa near Hukuntsi. Mr Moswaane promised to ensure that the project was accorded the much needed assistance to operate optimally.

“This mine has abundant opportunities as it has potential to create more than 200 jobs if fully operated efficiently and effectively,” he said.

He noted that if given utmost attention that it deserved, the project had the potential to assist government to fulfil its promise  of creating employment for Batswana.

Mr Moswaane underscored the need for the community to be self-reliant through actively partaking in development trusts, adding that, government’s mandate and desire was  to realise communities being empowered through ownership of their projects.

He advised that they should however do so with accountability through conducting audits. Mr Moswaane commended the Zutshwa Salt members for displaying high level of commitment to the project. He expressed displeasure on the state of roads in the district, which he said could affect businesses.

Mr Golebaone Molefhe, the general manager of  Local Enterprise Authority (LEA), said as part of the entrepreneurship and business development initiatives, his office undertook enterprise diagnostic review for the Zutshwa Salt to understand the business situation after its closure in 2015, having been established in 2004.

Mr Molefhe said the enterprise diagnostic review results identified that the business was not financially sustainable and viable as the project continued to make financial losses.

“Other challenges include a challenge in creating sustainable jobs and the need to increase the number of boreholes for crystallisation pounds,” he said 

Mr Molefhe said the business was operating with 44 crystallisation ponds, adding that at the current production capacity, the project was not meeting the market demand, which had negative impact on the business.

“We found out that inability to meet demand could in the long term result in lost sales, customer defections, negative publicity and ultimately loss of business and profits as low output results in increased unit production cost per bag,” he said.

In terms of seeking financial assistance, Mr Molefhe said LEA, through submission of business plan to different financiers the organisation managed to solicit funding from different financiers to the tune of P6,5 million.

“A total of P5.9 million has been secured from different financiers. P2 million has been secured from Rural Development Council, P2.2 million from Southern African Development Community and P1.7 million from United Nations Development Programme. All the monies would be used to expand the project and to turn it around. However there is still a shortage of more than P800 000 to effect the full project expansion,” he said. 

Mr Molefhe said the funding would be used to drill five boreholes and equip them to augment the two on site, to make evaporation ponds, additional crystallisation ponds and product expansion through building an additional crystallisation ponds.

“Apart from producing 50kg bags of salt and salt blocks, the project need to add other products like table salt and fine salt. This will give farmers and the market a choice while on the other hand increasing proceeds. Production needs to be increased to large scale in order to benefit from economies of scale.” he said.

Achievements to date include trainings and interventions conducted or offered to Zutshwa Salt by LEA on record keeping, entrepreneurship development training, sales and marketing, branding, packaging and product labelling intervention, bar coding, product testing and financial viability tool training.

“When fully expanded, we anticipate project expansion benefits shall make strides towards employment creation as more will be employed on permanent basis,” he said

He added that output would increase and the market demand would be met while sales would grow and drive revenue growth.

“The product range will increase and cater for a wide range of market needs, as the project will start exporting salt and the related products and in-turn improve the financial position of the business thereby rendering business financially viable and sustainable,” he said.

Mr Molefhe said LEA was pleased to work with Zutshwa Salt, emphasising the agency’s commitment to providing additional interventions that grows the project.

“We commit to assisting community projects as they are a source of livelihoods and create employment for the communities,” he said. ENDS