Ponatshego Kedikilwe

Ponatshego Kedikilwe (born 7 July 1938) is a Motswana politician who was Vice-President of Botswana from 2012 to 2014.He is a member of Botswana Democratic Party, he has also served as Minister of Minerals, Energy, and Water Resources since 2007. Quotes “We are happy that companies that have been here have been able to sustain themselves,” “However, we are concerned about the rampant speculation in the market if it goes unchecked. Closer to what is going on on the ground …. If they fail the licences have to be withdrawn. “We will have to deal with them kindly and diplomatically and where firmness is required we will have to do so,” “We can not allow speculators who would fail Botswana and the investors. It is unreasonable to sit on land while there are serious investors waiting,” “A great performance within the economy can be achieved and will be achieved through the mineral sector,” “we expect meaningful development from the sectors." Kedikilwe warns minerals concession speculators 27 July 2008 “Botswana and other African countries are endowed with resources and we have to make a serious attempt to take advantage of what is there,” “Although Botswana has abundant coal resources of approximately 200 billion tons, for us to realise the full benefits of these resources we need someone with expertise to help us put the resource to good use,” “We are struggling with our 600 Mega Watt power project; we have plans to establish a 300 mega watt Greenfield, and for all this to be successful we need all the expertise,” “Again to realise the benefits from these resources we need national grid transmission line to those parts of the country. We can’t do that on our own we need the expertise through the PPP’s”. Kedikilwe says PPPs can play role in development of SADC region 9 December 2013 “heavily dependent on a single and finite commodity – diamonds”. “We do recognise that economic diversification is a long term process and in our case, the immediate concern is how to lessen the country’s heavy dependence on diamonds,” “Economic diversification and sustainable growth cannot succeed unless an overall enabling framework has been put in place first. Priority areas for my ministry are coal and diamonds,” “The mandate of the CDU is to facilitate monetisation of Botswana coal by developing and implementing an accelerated coal monetisation strategic plan, coordination of the optimisation of the coal value chain, directing the planning of the coal and coal related rail development, undertake coal facilitatory projects and will be the contact point between government and the private sector,” Botswana looking to move away from dependence on diamonds 9 July 2012 “It is evident that the welcoming spirit of oneness has blossomed that is why today we are witnessing the official opening of the extended Temple,” “We hope that the Sikh community will strengthen and continue the crusade to uphold Botswana’s constitutional provisions of religious tolerance,” “This answers the Vision 2016 pillar of being a compassionate and caring nation and this commitment builds towards a tolerant and upright nation,” Kedikilwe lauds Sikh contribution to Botswana 13 December 2012 “His commitment was most visible when he fought hard to help with the construction of the national stadium,” Merafhe laid to rest 19 January 2015 “Government is very much alive to the fact that technological transformation of this magnitude will not come without significant initial cost and potentially on-going development costs over time,” Botswana Gets Ready For Digital Migration 5 August 2013 "My eagle of focus lands here," "SMMEs and the informal sector constitute between 35-45 percent of Botswana's GDP, the board and management (of the Botswana Consumer Fair), and their other principals should consider innovative ways of facilitating the growth of these sectors."   "Relatively lower stall fees or charges would enable more participation by SMMEs and increased numbers of local exhibitors and manufacturers would unleash their exposure to competition as well as sharpen their skills," SMMEs key to sustained economic growth - Kedikilwe 29 July 2013