Machaba Safaris has called on the government to reform Botswana’s work permit system to attract specialist tourism skills, arguing that the current process is driving expertise away instead of helping the country build capacity in the industry.
Speaking during a panel discussion at Botswana Sustainability Week on Wednesday, Machaba Safaris chief operations officer David Kind said experienced professionals were spending too much time navigating the permit process instead of training local employees and helping small businesses become suppliers to tourism operators.
“Right now, the permit process chases skills away from Botswana instead of drawing them in. Our most experienced people lose far too much time to it, time that should go into training our teams and growing our suppliers,” Kind said.
“Right now, the permit process chases skills away from Botswana instead of drawing them in. Our most experienced people lose far too much time to it, time that should go into training our teams and growing our suppliers,” Kind said.
He proposed positioning Botswana as a regional hub for tourism training and capacity development by making it easier for established operators to recruit specialist skills from across Africa.
Kind suggested that businesses employing at least 95 percent citizens should be allowed to bring in specialists they cannot readily find locally, provided they commit to formal skills-transfer arrangements.
These would include identifying citizen employees who would understudy foreign specialists to ensure that the expertise brought into the country strengthens the local workforce over time.
“Every skill we bring in should leave behind a stronger local workforce. The skills stay in Botswana, and more of our spending stays local,” he said.
Kind said the proposed reforms would benefit not only tourism operators but also local businesses that depend on them for commercial opportunities.
He explained that building a local supply chain often requires experienced managers to help small enterprises improve their systems, meet procurement standards and develop the capacity to supply established tourism businesses.
He urged the government to review the work permit process so that Botswana could attract skills that were not readily available locally while ensuring that their transfer created a stronger domestic workforce.
Reducing the administrative burden on experienced professionals would give operators more time to undertake this work, he argued. “We should be attracting the best tourism trainers and skills in Africa, and making Botswana the hub for capacity building in our industry,” Kind said.
His proposal comes against the backdrop of efforts to expand citizen participation in tourism, an industry whose performance depends on the country’s natural attractions as well as the skills and services needed to sustain them.
Machaba Safaris said the majority of its more than 300 employees came from villages around its camps, with citizens accounting for over 95 percent of its workforce.
Kind said the company would continue shifting its supply chain towards communities around its operating areas by building the capacity of small local businesses and supporting them to supply its operations.
He urged the government to review the work permit process so that Botswana could attract skills that were not readily available locally while ensuring that their transfer created a stronger domestic workforce.
The central objective, he said, should be to ensure that specialist expertise brought into Botswana produces lasting benefits for citizens and keeps more tourism expenditure within the local economy.
