MINISTER JUSTIFIES BHC RENTAL HIKE
Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Development, Mmusi Kgafela said Botswana Housing Corporation rental increases will not influence private property owners to increase prices as the corporation serves only 4.3 percent of the market.
Speaking during a press briefing, Kgafela explained that BHC prices are far below the market prices and it has been like this for the past 17 years. “The mandate of the corporation is to provide accommodation at affordable prices which are 20 percent below the market price but the market prices have been increasing over the past 17 years. Currently the low cost BHC house is P500 but in the market price that house is P2000, so the corporation is far much below the market price and cannot influence price increase in the private sector.”
However, he said it is not easy to regulate rental prices in the market as this requires the formation of the new regulatory structure which will require funding from government. “We have a law called Rent Control Act but not implemented. It states that commercial properties will be regulated but residential rentals are excluded. Government decided to allow the property market to selfregulate. I wish we can enforce Rent Control Act so that we can regulate the market without demanding extra funding from government coffers.”
Kgafela said over the years, government has been disapproving the Corporation’s request to increase rental prices without giving reasons but last year their proposal was approved. Under the revised rental prices, low cost houses will range from P537 to P2, 050 per month, medium cost from P1,330 to P3,700 per month, high cost from P2, 162 to P5,200 per month, town houses from P1, 866 to P5,020, and flats from P1, 238 to P3,500.
For individuals, rentals will be done in phases over five years, while for parastatals, government and companies, the increases will be done at once starting from April. In its financial year ended March 2020, the Corporation recorded an impressive total revenue of P880 million, 72 percent increase when compared to the P511 million recorded in the prior year. The increase in total revenues was mainly due to increase in sales revenue which increased significantly by P293 million from P57 million recorded in the prior year.
During the year, 745 properties were sold from new housing developments compared to 236 in the previous year whilst only 84 units were sold from old housing stock portfolio. Rental revenue increased by three percent to P199 million from P193 million recorded in the prior year. The increase was mainly due to additional new properties during the year.
With many athletes clocking good times in the recent athletics meets, there is hope that athletics can still notch more Olympic qualifications even though that would not guarantee medal wins at Tokyo2021 later this year.
As many sporting codes going on the last lap of qualification which concludes in June, it seems like for Botswana, the target of winning two medals is slowly fading and becoming unrealistic. This past week the dream of qualifying more boxers was dealt a heavy blow when the World Olympics qualifiers were scrapped off. The remaining 35 boxing slots which Botswana was to try their luck in at Paris will instead be allocated according to rankings across all the continents.
“We only slashed our medal target from four to two but we also added a third additional medal which will be a bonus for us. But this adjustment was not done based on Covid-19 impact. We are still on the 15 athlete target because we believe our relay teams, both men and women can qualify. So we are working with Botswana Athletics Association to make sure they achieve that. The World boxing qualifying event might be canceled but one of our boxers Mohamed Otukile stands a chance to qualify through rankings, so we can still pick one slot from boxing,”said BNOC acting Chief Executive officer ,Wedu Motswetla.
As it stands only five athletes have booked the ticket to Tokyo: Nijel Amos, Christine Botlogetswe, Amantle Montsho, Galefele Moroko and Keamogetse Kenosi of boxing. Whilst Botswana has high profile athletes who have the ability to win medals at international stage, history shows that medal glory has eluded Botswana at the Olympics. While Botswana has been participating in Olympics since early 80s, its first ever medal came at the 2012 London games courtesy of Amos’s silver medal in men’s 800m. In the recent World Championships, Botswana was dealt a major blow when the likes of Amos, men relay team bowed out of the competition due to injuries.
The inactivity that has been brought about by the Covid-19 has caused a lot of changes as athletes cannot train in the best facilities and compete as frequent as possible in international meets which local athletes have used to gauge themselves in the past.
Despite all this factors weighing down Botswana’s preparations and chances, Motswetla remains optimistic. “It can be achievable because almost all countries are challenged by Covid-19 in the same way, the difference is that some countries already have better facilities to train in their home soils. But competition is competition so anything can happen. Our target is realistic,” she said.
However, the most disturbing trend is that post 2016 Olympics, the trusted code, athletics, has been registering mixed results when in international games. Team Botswana returned empty handed from the 2016 Olympics in Rio and 2017 and 2019 World Athletics Championships.