/ 14 May 1999

EXPATS DOMINATE BOTSWANA TOURISM

BOTSWANA’S tourism season is set for another bumper year amid growing resentment that the industry, set to replace the nation’s ailing mining sector, is still dominated by expatriates. The Deputy Commissioner of Labour, Moshe Stimela, says his department is extremely concerned that after so many years the industry has made little progress in training citizens. “They have not heeded the call for a localisation program,” says Stimela. Loius Nchindo, managing director of Debswana Diamond Company and a great proponent of citizen empowerment, agrees. He says a system whereby a few foreign individuals monopolise the natural resources on which tourism relies is “neither wise nor sustainable. It is certainly both socially and politically unacceptable”.