Kutlo Motseta
10th October 2025
Botswana hosted development partners Zotus Group at Global Expo at the Fairgrounds in Gaborone.
The event was attended by President Advocate Duma Boko and Vice President Ndaba Gaolathe with Zotus Group amongst many other ministerial and international dignitaries.
The Zotus group discussed its plan to build a world class city in Kalahari.
“The country needs visionaries. Zotus is designed to transform Botswana, attract global investment .… we are building a city that will complement Dubai,” said Davison Semanga, Group Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of Zotus Group.
“10 years from now that will be our capital. … that’s our vision,” he added.
Semanga said the new city will create 20 000 jobs and attract new industries into the country and become a financial services hub. The designers behind the project are alleged to be responsible for some of the first world city constructions in Saudi Arabia
It was revealed the group “signed a memorandum of understanding with the Office of the President on the 8th October and will sign a further memorandum of understanding for the provision of land.”
The group has roped in international sports icons Didier Drogba and Emile Heskey as ambassadors for the project.
Drogba is well known as one of Africa’s best sporting exports having led Chelsea football club as a striker and Ivory Coast at the FIFA soccer World Cups. Heskey, was a leading striker in the British Premier League, having played his trade at Liverpool and also for England national team.
Both players have wealth of knowledge on professional commercial sport and have earned hundreds of millions of pula. They have committed to assisting with the progress of development of professional sport through the Zotus city project.
“I take [that] we all agree that without minimum infrastructure [not much can be done] … we still have talent … physically we are God gifted. We manage to bring the best out of our people … these are the people that we are going to include in our project (Lestile Tebogo, Busang Kebinatshipi etc). Developing sports infrastructure can be done through FIFA and the Olympic committee … that can come to support us … we going to bring the people from Botswana … to succeed,” said Drogba.
“The facilities are important for us … I came from the UK so our facilities are good,” added Heskey.
He asserted, “So these are the things we must bring to the country [facilities] you’ve got the right talent …. So these are things we must incorporate in our master plan.”
