South African civils firm still keen on Botswana, despite recent setback

South African civil construction company Khato Civils is continuing with the roll-out of its broad investment into the Botswana market, despite legal action recently taken against the company, which saw several of its business bank accounts being frozen. Khato Civils chairperson Simbi Phiri tells Engineering News Online that the freezing of eight of Khato Civils’ bank accounts was instituted when rivals tried to push the company out of Botswana and remove it from competing afor a key strategic water project in 2016. During a recent severe drought that lead to drastic water shortages in Gaborone, the government opened a tender for a water pipeline from Mahalapye to Gaborone to increase the volume of water available to the capital city. Khato Civils submitted its tender, in which it claimed it could build the pipeline with 18 months.