BERA gives fuel retailers three months to fix safety breaches or risk closures and licence losses.
BONGANI MALUNGA
The Botswana Energy Regulatory Authority (BERA) has intensified its crackdown on fuel retailers, warning that service stations failing to rectify serious safety and environmental violations could face closure, licence suspension or even licence revocation.
The warning follows a recent round of routine inspections of retail service stations across Botswana, which BERA says uncovered a “significant number” of facilities with serious outstanding non-compliances.
Among the violations are the absence of oil-spillage containment systems and oil-water separators, inadequate leak-monitoring wells, poor or non-existent operating procedures, untrained employees and failure to provide service-station attendants with personal protective clothing.
SIGNIFICANT RISKS
BERA says the breaches present significant risks to both workers and the public, while potentially contributing to environmental pollution and contamination of underground and surface water sources.
The regulator says the problem is particularly concerning because some stations had previously been inspected and committed to correcting the shortcomings. In some cases, however, as many as four years have passed without all inspection findings being addressed.
As a result, BERA has already taken enforcement action in recent weeks, including the closure of some retail service stations across the country. “Against this background, the Authority hereby notifies all retail service stations that they are required to address all outstanding non-compliance within the next three months, being September, October and November 2026,” BERA said in a statement released on Tuesday.
THREE MONTH DEADLINE
The three-month deadline effectively puts fuel retailers on notice that continued non-compliance could have direct commercial consequences. BERA warned that failure to rectify the outstanding issues could trigger further enforcement, including closure of facilities, suspension of operating licences or revocation of licences, in line with regulatory requirements.
Retailers have been urged to revisit previous inspection reports, conduct internal self-assessments and, where necessary, request voluntary inspections from BERA to identify and correct outstanding deficiencies before the deadline expires.