Anyone who has watched the animation movie Megamind will know about the rivalry between the villain and the protector. There is a particular part in the movie where the good guy actually tires of always battling the baddie and fakes his own death. Of course the scoundrel gets jubilant that the one person who had been able to thwart his bad plans and wrestle him is no longer in business, so he goes on a riot of the city, gets all the money he wants and basically runs unchecked.

 
In time he gets bored and actually wishes for the days when there was a hero to balance the equation and he gets depressed to the point that he actually creates a hero who he’d be able to fight. This is a brilliant show of the adage that “If it wasn’t for pain then I wouldn’t know my strength” and one rapper actually goes on to say “Joy wouldn’t feel so good if it wasn’t for pain.”  Healthy competition is good for growth.

“Thank you for 100 years of competition. The previous 30 years were actually a bit boring.”

 
“Thank you for 100 years of competition. The previous 30 years were actually a bit boring.” That is the jab that Mercedes Benz threw at BMW as a way of congratulating them when latter turned in March. The message was in the form of a short video, which starts off showing the well-known kidney grilles of a BMW which actually makes you want to go “Awww, how sweet…” when you see the first part of the congratulatory note. But wait, there is more, the last part of the message proclaims that there was some boredom involved. I thought Germans had no sense of humour but obviously that clearly is not the case.

 
The rivalry between BMW and Mercedes is no secret. Everyone knows that the two automakers have been fighting for the top spot for decades.
The congratulatory note came with an invitation to Mercedes Benz’s Museum! Well I’ll be, you would think that BMW would be the one to throw open their doors to other manufactures, but it seems Mercedes felt a bit left out of the centenary happenings. “We warmly congratulate the globally renowned company BMW on its anniversary and invite all employees of BMW AG to discover the complete history of the automobile at the Mercedes-Benz Museum,’ said Ralf Glaser, Head of Press and Marketing at Mercedes-Benz Classic.

But not only was the invitation resplendent with offers to teach BMW employees about some REAL car history, it was also benevolent about letting them bring their cars too, noting that “as a special gesture, all those guests from the BMW workforce who turn up in a vehicle produced by the Munich-based company will be allowed to park on the hill directly in front of the museum in the scheduled week.” The Stuttgart-based company seemed to be in a really thoughtful mood.

 

Hundreds of years ago, March 7, 1916 to be precise, Bayerische Motorenwerke (BMW) was founded in Munich.

 
Though it might look like a greeting similar to what two champions share in a boxing ring right before the bell, it’s not really that. In fact, the sentiment is more like two heavyweight boxers chilling on a beach, with no talks about their sparring. You know about the rivalry between manufactures — Audi and Jaguar included; even their customers seem to be at war about whose car is better in terms of this and that.
This rivalry goes beyond car dealerships and who sells more, it is also rooted in motorsports, and they do acknowledge it too and the proof of this is in the many billboards and ads they litter with their wares.

Hundreds of years ago, March 7, 1916 to be precise, Bayerische Motorenwerke (BMW) was founded in Munich. This manifested the beginning of a now world-renowned brand which contributes to Germany’s excellent international reputation in the automotive industry. The founding of BMW happened in the hectic early prime of automotive history when 30 years before, Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler had invented the automobile independently of one another in 1886. And 10 years later, Daimler-Benz AG ascended with the new Mercedes-Benz brand from the merger of Benz & Cie. and Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG).

Their press talk states that: “Starting with the basics, the letters B-M-W stand for Bayerische Motoren Werke, or Bavarian Motor Works in English.

 
But with all that rivalry said, BMW is resolute about going forward. “The company has continually evolved and, in some cases, reinvented itself. That will continue in the future,” Harald Krüger, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG said. Their perspective as a company is to look into their magical crystal ball and explore ideas, opinions and visions. “What will mobility look like in the future? What role will companies play in society? How and where will people live? How are digitalisation and globalisation changing our world? How can we continue to be a driver of progress?” they ask these questions under the slogan “The Next  100”.

 
Their press talk states that: “Starting with the basics, the letters B-M-W stand for Bayerische Motoren Werke, or Bavarian Motor Works in English. The company started off in 1916 as an aircraft manufacturer, and the following year began displaying the circular red, blue and white emblem we have quickly come to recognise over the years as BMW. The logo incorporates the state colours of Bavaria, and has grown in size since its launch.

In 1922, the German group moved to the production facilities of Bayerische Flugzeug-Werke AG (BFW) in Munich at the Oberwiesenfeld Airfield, and nearly 93 years later, BMW Group’s headquarters remain there today. By 1923, the brand’s first motorcycle — the R 32 — was announced, but it was only some years later, in 1928, that the company actually became an automotive manufacturer.”
We wish the makers of the sheer driving pleasure machines a happy 100 years and hope for another awesome milestone in their work.

The post Mercedes gives BMW’s 100 anniversary a cheeky nod appeared first on Business Weekly & Review.

•  Stanbic still strong in corporate banking
•  Barclays on a quest to take lead
•  Banks take advantage of  companies’  expansion plans
•  Stanchart on a slide but remains optimistic

With too much risks associated with retail banking  because of low household income, the banks are now more vigorous at corporate banking, and a contest for supremacy has ensued in earnest, observes Staff Writer KEABETSWE NEWEL.

It is perhaps proper to say that because the banking sector has now become tougher and rougher, with more players and limited opportunities, competition in corporate banking has now turned into a bareknuckle fight.
The Business Weekly & Review can confidently state that a few years back, corporate banking was easy and it was the oxygen to most commercial banks. For quite some time now, Stanbic Bank has been known as an institution for the corporates. Standard Chartered and Barclays Bank have also been a bit aloof to the retail bankers for a number of years, although the banks embraced high income earners intimately.

 
When BancABC commenced operations in 2006, it was a merchant bank with limited or no participation in the retail space. First National Bank Botswana (FNBB), on the other hand, has been known for a long time as a “juvenile banker”. This is because although it also had its hand in corporate banking, its eyes were also on retail banking and even had products for tertiary education students.
Because of increased competition in corporate banking, there came a time when all these banks were busy at retail banking, recruiting household clients with offers loans up until a period where the household sector was almost fully lent, and taking a larger chunk of the banks’ P48 billion total credit.

 
Retail banking, although it has the masses, is a bit riskier, and has more impairments than the corporate banking segment. With increased economic headwinds, opportunities in the retail segment were almost exhausted, while risks increased.  The corporate segment was also affected by lack of economic growth which hit a lot of businesses, but these were a bit safer compared to household individuals. Now the latest trend is that competition in the corporate banking sector is at its highest level, leading to a scramble for the highest market share.

While banks used to make money easily from corporate banking, now they do not because the increase in commercial banks has reduced the number of corporate clients.

 
Head Researcher at Motswedi Securities Garry Juma said that while banks used to make money easily from corporate banking, now they do not because the increase in commercial banks has reduced the number of corporate clients. Juma said while corporate clients used turn to banks for services, the tables have turned and the hunter has become the hunted.
Two years down the line, FNBB, a bank owned by South Africa’s First Rand Limited, brought Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) to Botswana as a strategy to have its specialist corporate banking unit regionally. This was also to implore its expertise in Botswana.
This meant that RMBB was now eating into clients previously held by Standard Chartered, Barclays, Stanbic and BancABC, raising competition higher.

 
Stanbic is boss in corporate banking
For ages now Stanbic Bank, a unit of Africa’s largest bank by assets, Standard  Bank, has been at the forefront of corporate banking in Botswana. Headed by Managing Director Leina Gabaraane, Stanbic has been the only bank in Botswana focused on corporate banking, although it had personal and business banking. The bank’s performance had been supported by corporate banking and it still is.

 
While Stanbic has like other banks suffered loss of business because of the depressing economic environment and low interest rates, its corporate banking wing continues to lead not only in its internal performance but also in comparison with other commercial banks in Botswana.  The bank’s financial results for the year ended December 31, 2015 shows that total revenue stood at around P700 million, but 54 percent of the amount was from corporate and investment banking. The corporate segment continued to drive the company’s profitability at P193.7 million, while personal and business banking made a P62-million loss.

 
Juma said that corporate banking was the “blood of Stanbic”. He said over the years the bank had mastered the art of luring corporates to their side more than any other bank, but with increased competition and a change in the economic landscape, Stanbic’s position as a leader in corporate banking may not be as secure as it used to be.
By profitability, revenue as well as rate of impairments, Stanbic is better than Barclays, RMBB, Standard Chartered and BancABC, the country’s largest commercial banks. However, there is a new and interesting development – Barclays Bank is gaining pace.

The rise of Barclays Bank
A peek into the latest 2015/16 financial results by the major banks depicts a tight competition in corporate banking.
However, it is fair to note that Barclays Bank seems to have been the second best performer among the big five banks, and ultimately the best listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) in corporate banking this time around looking at its revenue, profitability and the level of impairments. Under the stewardship of Reinette van der Merwe, Barclays seems to be going more corporate and is becoming more vigorous in that regard. For the year ended December 31, corporate banking drove Barclays performance. The numbers show that the bank made a post-tax profit of P260 million in total, but 65 percent of total profit (P169 million) came from corporate banking. Corporate banking profitability grew significantly from P106 million seen during the 2014 period.

 Barclays Bank is also busy trying to recruit more high-value clients.

 
Barclays’ corporate banking segment was, however, lower than that of Stanbic Bank which recorded P193 million as after tax profit for the corporate banking segment.
This is despite that retail banking accounted for 73 percent of Barclays’ (P1.3 billion total revenue) in 2015. Being as risky as it is, retail banking had P236.3 million as impairments, while corporate banking had only P7.8 million in that regard.
Head of Corporate and Investment Banking Kgotso Bannalotlhe said his strategy was to “help companies that drive Botswana’s economy”. More specifically, these are pan-African blue-chip companies which are very profitable and have vigorous expansion plans. “We are well placed to support these companies with finance,” he added, noting that these companies have little chances of defaulting on their loans because with so much financial muscle, they could cushion themselves from economic headwinds.

 
Barclays Bank is also busy trying to recruit more high-value clients, which could boost their corporate loan book. Barclays was the only financial house which offered services to Botswana Telecommunications Corporation Limited (BTCL) during its just ended Initial Public Offering (IPO) which obviously pumped millions into its corporate banking proceeds. This could also explain the sharp increase in Barclays’ corporate banking performance. Lately, the institution also signed a P1-billion facility to BCL Mine, which has been in financial deficiency for some time now. If BCL services the facility efficiently, which could be the case considering that the mine has a government guarantee, then Barclays will make a killing.

 
The shrinking Standard Chartered
As the first bank to open shop in Botswana, Stanchart had become a master in corporate financing. This is a bank that has an image of being the best diamond financier because it had internationally cut its teeth in financing diamond. Locally, Stanchart did the same, striking good deals with major institutions such as Debswana, Okavango Diamond Company (ODC) and others. This bank, headed by chief executive Moatlhodi Lekaukau, had also established a good relationship with public institutions/parastatals such as Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) which assisted then in ballooning its performance.
Challenges emerged as parastatals started to underperform because of economic challenges while some were simply mismanaged. Commodity prices fell, killing performances of mining companies while diamond sales declined because of slowing demand in China and the Western economies, impacting on Standard Chartered’s corporate clients.

 

The bank made P282 million revenue in the corporate banking segment out of P880 million in total.

 
As it stands, the bank incurred a large impairment of P70 million which Chief Finance Officer Mpho Masupe says was caused by a default by one major client which is undergoing challenges because of the economy. “We have engaged that client and we believe the defaults will be sorted in the shortest time,” he said.
The bank made P282 million revenue in the corporate banking segment out of P880 million in total.

 
Masupe said the challenges were mainly from the economic environment, but noted that his bank remained very strong in corporate banking. “Our clients are diversified across all sectors of the economy and we shall continue ensuring we are not exposed to either public or private sector,” he said, when The Business Weekly & Review wanted to know why the bank seemed to be more focused on government owned institutions. Further,
Masupe said that they were also chasing blue-chip institutions which are expanding. “All the banks are chasing those clients, it is just a matter of time who beats the other to a target client,” he said.

 
RMB: The smart new kid on the block
Being a unit of the gigantic FNBB, RMBB only specialises in corporate banking. It is a regional player, which is well capitalised at group level as well as possessing enough superior expertise to entice any corporate entity into its armpit. RMBB is only two years in Botswana, but already the corporate bank is chewing part of the corporate bank market share, cutting right into that of the already existing banks.
FNBB’s six months results ending December 31, 2015, show that RMBB, their corporate banking unit’s revenue stands at P163 million, but during the 2014 full year the corporate banking unit had made P277 million as revenue. Using the latest available full year results, it is right to argue that the revenue was lower than that of Stanchart by a margin, putting a checkmate mode on the latter. RMBB has its eyes on the capital market.

 
Eleste Fauconnier, Africa Analyst for RMB said as a group, RMB the bank has been involved in over 55 deals in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and has been the lead advisor and book runner on almost all of those landmark deals, including five of the largest seven Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in SSA since 2010.
Fauconnier said that RMB had a long and successful track record in advising Botswana companies on raising equity capital, having advised most recently leading local tourism outfit Wilderness Safaris on a concurrent Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE)/Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) listing, and Choppies on its JSE secondary listing.
Given time, RMBB is likely to advance its market share ahead of other banks and will possibly become one of the leading corporate bankers here.

 
Bancabc eyes growth
Owned by the English investment firm, Atlas Mara, BancABC believes that as a smaller institution, opportunities are still in abundance.
Managing Director Jitto Kuruian said that, with their P522 million income for the year ending December 31, 2015, a total of 35 percent of the revenue comes from corporate and investment banking. He said the Atlas Mara group’s idea was to have corporate banking and retail contribute equally to the group performance.  In his views, as a new entrant in the market, the bank has an opportunity to introduce new products that could lure new customers under its fold.
Further, given Atlas Mara’s strong financial position and international banking expertise, Kurian believes BancABC has an advantage of being in the forefront going forward.

The post Scramble for corporate banking appeared first on Business Weekly & Review.

The High Court has cast a shadow over a law firm whose name once had the hallowed ring of being beyond the realm of fallibility. On the other hand, the name of the powerful spy chief Isaac Kgosi has become synonymous with the abuse of power. The spectre over the two men around whom President Ian Khama’s rule revolved may reveal the real state of the humpty dumpty-style tumble of the outgoing top man, writes TSHIRELETSO MOTLOGELWA.

Late at night last week Tuesday, Parks Tafa, Managing Partner at Collins Newman & Co, wrote an sms to the editor of this publication warning that the paper had made its “biggest mistake” and was going to be “punished heavily” as a result of the extensive coverage of the law firm’s recent troubles with the law. The threat of punishment against a journalist for publishing what is otherwise contained in public documents – court records – must have been uncharacteristic of the man who until recently was known as Khama’s right hand man when it came to providing legal advice. Before Tafa found himself cell phone in hand, near midnight, having to draft an angry rant at a journalist, the lanky lawyer was a power broker.

 
Collins Newman and Co, arguably the country’s biggest corporate law firm has seen better days, and has been in better shape. Before the judgment of the High Court and firm’s fall from grace and descent into the current hard times after a ruling that accused it of wrongdoing and attempted manipulation of the judicial process, it was formidable indeed.
Standing at the meeting point of political power with its inherent inside knowledge of top decision-making processes and corporate legal expertise and advice developed over long years of access to the kind of corporate deals derived from that type of experience, Tafa, Rizwan Desai and then partner Laurence Khupe had a power some lawyers could only salivate at.

This power may have been in full view but it was never in fuller perspective than during the height of the Louis Nchindo corruption case.

 
This power may have been in full view but it was never in fuller perspective than during the height of the Louis Nchindo corruption case. State prosecutors found themselves in the unenviable position of tussling with a man who stood in court between political access and legal expertise. Prosecutors Matshwenyego Phuthego and Kgosiitsile Ngakaagae had to seek cooperation from former Cabinet ministers in the Festus Mogae administration, diamond magnate Nicky Oppenheimer and even Khama himself.

Without the cooperation and assistance of these heavyweights the case against Nchindo would have gone to nought. The state prosecutors found themselves in a tight corner they could not wriggle out of – Collins Newman, who was also Nchindo’s lawyer, was also the legal eagle for Khama and some of the Cabinet ministers. Prosecutors in the meantime had to confine their moves to official channels. It was increasingly becoming clear, almost embarrassingly obvious, that the prosecutors were not getting any traction.

 
In that court session Tafa revealed that Khama had maintained that the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) had never solicited any statement from him, criticising it for failing to get such from key witnesses among them the President, the then Minister of Foreign Affairs Phandu Skelemani, Minister of Defence, Justice and Security Dikgakgamatso Seretse and former minister, Daniel Kwelagobe.
And then came the clincher when Tafa revealed to the court that he had the benefit of an interview with Khama and others who had stated that the DPP never approached them. It was a revelation with damaging implications for the nascent case against Nchindo, and whether consciously or not, had the effect of showing to the court who had the ear of the political leadership and access to the state hierarchy.

 
“I can take an oath. They have not spoken to His Excellency,” stated Tafa during the court proceedings. For good measure, he added that while the prosecution was struggling to get access to the highest office and Cabinet, the defence led by him had managed to get affidavits of its own from none other than Khama for a related civil case. He said that the DPP had failed to get a statement from Skelemani, adding that he had even deposed an affidavit for the defence in a civil application before court in which the DPP wanted to halt development on the plot at the centre of the case.

 
“I have spoken to these people and they have indicated that they were never approached for statements,” Tafa submitted, referring to Khama, the late (Mompati) Merafhe, Seretse and Skelemani. Tafa said this on May 27, 2009, according to Mmegi newspaper, as he continued to castigate the prosecution for failing to get into contact with key witnesses and former members of Mogae’s cabinet.

In that moment of muscle-flexing Tafa showed what type of man he was in the political landscape of this country.

 
It was becoming clear that the statements were not forthcoming. After all Tafa knew his clients well. It wouldn’t have made sense for them, at a personal level, to assist prosecution against the interests of a man who was their lawyer, and his client, Nchindo, who was also until then perceived to be a kingmaker within the political elite. Tafa told court that the prosecution would not succeed in it attempts, and it did not succeed. He dared the prosecution to subpoena the group. It could not, for fear of finding itself saddled with hostile witnesses. Ultimately the prosecutors had no option but to proceed with the case by turning accused into state witnesses.

 
In that moment of muscle-flexing Tafa showed what type of man he was in the political landscape of this country. The access he commanded, the inside knowledge of the workings of the top political leadership, and in some way, how his strategic use of this deadly combination of assets could come in handy for any client that may need his premium service.

 
A hard worker and legal thinker of note, Tafa combined pure ability with strategic positioning within the social, political and economic space to create a law firm that provided much more than just legal service as the sun set on the Mogae presidency. Therefore, by default, Tafa became the face of the incoming presidency whenever in court, which was often, with all its power and swashbuckling ways.
The face of the presidency at legal war, also became the face of the presidency in legal defeat, and social, political mire.

 
The rise of Khama brought with it the rise of another man – Isaac Kgosi. Directorate of Intelligence and Security Director General Kgosi was more than top of the Khama kitchen cabinet, he was known as the right hand man to the new top man.
But the top man and Kgosi came from way back and their story would become more intertwined as the Khama presidency rolled on.
In 2008, when Khama was sworn in as Mogae’s successor, he promoted his private secretary Kgosi, a faithful friend from their army days, for whom he had especially created the secretarial post, to now head the newly established Directorate for Intelligence and Security (DIS).

Kgosi has been keeping a low profile in recent times, not as publicly seen as he used to be in the early years of the Khama presidency.

 
Establishing a powerful DIS in that same year had also been Khama-driven. The law that established it, forcefully supported by the then Vice President Merafhe, gave its agents firearms as well as wide-ranging arrest and detention powers. It soon became notorious for using these powers to suppress opposition. In 2009, striking students were abducted, threatened and intimidated; 12 “suspects” were shot in broad daylight and with impunity, according to a ministerial answer to a Parliamentary question.

 
Subsequent extrajudicial killings were not so much about social protest, but seemed to centre more on corruption, scandal and extortion around Khama and his circle of close friends and relatives.  Still in 2009, Gaborone resident John Kalafatis was shot in broad daylight and in public on the streets of Gaborone; it was alleged that he had tried to blackmail “high profile” individuals with an incriminating video tape.
The DIS which was not fully operational at the time but security agents implicated in the killing were linked to the core that later formed the DIS.  The DIS became so omnipresent in the fear-ridden state of the times that when Nchindo was found dead in 2010, some people expressed suspicions that the security agents around the top leadership had something to do with it.

 
Nchindo had allegedly threatened to blow the whistle on a diamond-funding scandal from which the ruling party had benefited.
In February 2012, the bullet riddled body of IT company owner and DIS contractor Harry Tembo was found under a bridge bordering the upmarket suburb of Phakalane in the north of Gaborone. Tembo had been a personal acquaintance of some individuals at the highest level of the secret service. In 2011, he had turned chief witness in an enquiry by the state anti-corruption agency DCEC (Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime) into Kgosi’s business dealings.

 
Among the subject of these enquiries were DIS tenders totalling close to US$6 six million which had been awarded to four companies owned by Kgosi and two of his associates. The associates had also obtained contracts to build Khama’s controversial home in Mosu, which was built with the help of army manpower.
Kgosi is director of Silver Shadows, a company that provides private security for state diamond mining company Debswana.

 
After a while Kgosi was discussed in hushed tones; seen as a man who represented Khama’s power and the unbounded ability and willingness to use it with deathly consequences if need be. Also in 2014, -the election year that renewed Khama’s mandate, the DIS prepared “sedition” charges against – and briefly jailed –  Sunday Standard Editor Outsa Mokone. The newspaper had investigated corruption in the security establishment in the run-up to the elections. DIS was also suspected to have hacked the website of the investigative weekly Mmegi and jammed the popular Gabz FM radio station, which was hosting political debates before the elections. At the same time the media reported extensively on Kgosi’s financial dealings, raising questions on the use of official position for personal gain. There were calls to prosecute Kgosi, but the case never saw the light of day.

 
Kgosi has been keeping a low profile in recent times, not as publicly seen as he used to be in the early years of the Khama presidency.
Both Kgosi and Tafa have been criticised widely for their roles in the Khama presidency. In recent times Tafa has been blasted for his role in the cases against Khama, in which the latter lost such as the infamous “Hands Up” case. Kgosi’s influence is blamed for having driven the Khama leadership to aloofness and an obsession with security solutions for public challenges.

At the same time, the aura that used to accompany Khama and his leadership has dissipated, as the last general election results have shown. Some within the ruling Botswana Democratic Party even perceive him, and indeed those around him, as impediments to reviving the party’s standing in public. It is as if, as the end of the Khama reign comes to an end, the two main men around him also face a decline in public standing.

The post Tafa and Kgosi – How the twin towers of the Khama presidency collapsed appeared first on Business Weekly & Review.

•  La Nina to wreck havock

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) which works in nearly 170 countries and territories, helping to achieve the eradication of poverty and the reduction of inequalities and exclusion has warned that climate extremes are likely to persist. According to the UNDP, climate extremes as of recent have caused drought and led to crop failures throwing millions of vulnerable people under severe food insecurity and also creating massive power cuts and spikes in food prices.

 
Director of the UNDP Regional Service Center for Africa, Lebogang Motlana, during the UNDP Resident Representatives/UN Resident Coordinators Consultative Meeting in Gaborone stated that over the past several months, Africa has been experiencing an extremely strong El Nino with devastating effects especially in the Southern and Eastern regions. Motlana noted that the situation is not only leading many areas in the region into a humanitarian crisis but it has created serious repercussions on long-term development, threatening to undo developmental gains achieved over the past several years.

 
“What is even more distressing is the fact that climate scientists are telling us that climate extremes are likely to persist, and with even greater intensity and frequency. La Nina, a phenomenon that usually follows El Nino, and which is characterized by extreme weather but with reverse impact to the El Nino and which can be equally damaging, will likely wreak havoc on the latter part of the year and is expected to continue into 2017.”

Lack of preparedness and mitigation measures to the potential adverse consequences of La Nina will compound an already existing humanitarian situation.

 
He warned that if proper management and recovery from the current El Nino, the lack of preparedness and mitigation measures to the potential adverse consequences of La Nina will compound an already existing humanitarian situation resulting in more loss of lives and livelihoods and more suffering especially to the vulnerable groups.

 
Motlana said adopting a collective and coherent approach by authorities, UNDP, other UN agencies, development partners, and humanitarian actors, is key for addressing effective disaster preparedness. He also said it would mitigate the response, recovery, and the building of resilience to disasters and climate risks.

 
“It is in this context that the UNDP has a crucial role to play at regional and national recovery levels. The UNDP leadership in bringing together the UN, NGOs, and partners, behind Government authorities in responding to the impact of El Nino and more importantly to improve  recovery efforts and La Nina preparedness provides an opportunity for coordinated action and improved resource utilization, building on and establishing complementarities.”

 
He emphasized that there is need to focus on early action and have a holistic approach to the management of disasters and climate risks with both humanitarian and development actions inextricably linked and providing a fluid transition towards the strengthening of capacities and resilience of households and communities to safeguard lives and livelihoods. “However, we have to validate and ensure that this strategy is reflective of the situation on the ground and that it bodes well with national intervention, preparedness and response strategies,” he said.

The post Harsh climate to curtail development appeared first on Business Weekly & Review.

As Outsa Mokone and Sonny Serite arrest show, the hunt for sources is on in this country. In the week in which investigative journalists released stories from the biggest leak of the century, Panama Papers, communication platform WhatsApp reveal they will put end-to-end encryption on the billion-plus users, and throwing a spanner in the works of intelligence and law enforcement agencies around the world. Staff writer TSHIRELETSO MOTLOGELWA explores the implications of the new move by the global communication company on both journalists and the DIS.

There is a picture of Sunday Standard Editor Outsa Mokone, on the day security agents raided his office in September 2014. He is accompanied by security agents. The picture was captured in the melee that ensued as security agents were making away with documents and computers from Mokone’s office. One bulky agent, in dark glasses, holds Mokone’s computer drive. Incidentally, columnist Sonny Serite, then a witness, can be seen clicking away, taking pictures on his phone.
Just two years later, Serite was arrested and detained on suspicions of having obtained information from a source.  Both Mokone and Serite are free, and they are yet to have their day in court.  Journalists have come to know that security agents may want journalists, but who they really need is that holy grail of journalistic work – the whistleblower and all the information that comes with the source. However recent developments in the United States may prove to be a blessing disguise for journalists and citizens increasingly concerned with encroachment of security apparatus on their privacy. In the week in which investigative journalism celebrated the product of the biggest leak in world history, now called the Panama Papers, communication platform WhatsApp, announced that it would extend end-to-end encryption for all its billion-plus users worldwide.

We also wait to see who the DIS will terrorise after they confiscated Mokone’s hard drive.

There has always been two ways of nabbing sources – direct surveillance both physical and electronic, and secondly physical arrest of the reporter and his equipment, and mining that for leads and crucial information. At the time of Mokone’s arrest Mmegi, the private daily opined in its strongly worded editorial, that the attack on the veteran editor was an attempt to catch his sources.
“We also wait to see who the DIS will terrorise after they confiscated Mokone’s hard drive, which quite possibly carries e-mails and other information on some of his informants. We shall know whatever the DIS does to them. We know government has been terrorising sources. That is bad enough. But going for journalists in the course of their duties is even worse” stated Mmegi.
However the arrest of journalists often, leads to embarrassing headlines worldwide as Mokone’s capture did. So in recent times it was a well known secret among journalists that the security agents preferred electronic surveillance. Journalists who deal in serious reporting live in mortal fear of their sources being found. In the age of online communication, electronic communication such as SMS, email and social networks provides a double-edged sword for both reporter and source. It has the convenience of instantaneous, but it also leaves journalists open to electronic monitoring.
The telecommunication oversight body the Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority, in its latest financial reports outlines the ubiquity of mobile penetration in the country. “Over the past 10 years, mobile telephony subscriptions increased from 823,070 in March 2006 to 3,405,887 in March 2015 representing 314% increase. It is estimated that the mobile telephony networks cover at least 95% of the population with varying network capabilities of 2.5G, 3G and 4G”, it states in its 2015 Annual Report. The rapid rise mobile phone use in Botswana inevitably has led to mobile communication extending to journalists and their sources.

The arrest of Sonny Serite and his alleged source at the Office of the President, points to this interest by the security agents on not so much as the journalist but most importantly – the source.

The arrest of Sonny Serite and his alleged source at the Office of the President, points to this interest by the security agents on not so much as the journalist but most importantly – the source. It was until perhaps this week, generally assumed among journalists that, communication platforms such as WhatsApp were simply a free for all for security agents looking for whistleblowers. Journalists took it for granted that their conversations were being monitored, a situation that spawned the famous line in most conversations between journalists, “Ba re reeditse monna” (Of course they are listening in).
Serite says the most trusted method was to always leave your mobile phone a few metres away from earsight when you are in conversation. “You had to put the phone in the safe. Then you can talk to your source” he says jokingly. However recent developments in far-off United States seeks to throw a spanner in the works of Directorate of Intelligence and Security Director General Isaac Kgosi’s men in dark shades and their attempts to eavesdrop on electronic communication on the WhatsApp platform. Following on the controversial case by the US’s Federal Bureau of Investigation against Apple, the social network WhatsApp, this week switched on encryption for its billions-plus subscribers.
WhatsApp’s decision comes directly out of Apple’s tussle with the FBI according to IT security experts.
The International publication WIRED traces the story to February 16, when Apple CEO Tim Cook released an open letter refusing the court order to unlock a phone that belonged to one of the two shooters who killed 14 people and seriously injured another 22 during a December attack in San Bernardino, California.
“About two weeks later in Brazil, authorities arrested a Facebook vice president because WhatsApp wouldn’t turn over messages after a court order. Apparently, the authorities didn’t realize that the Facebook employee had nothing to do with WhatsApp—or that WhatsApp, thanks to end-to-end encryption, had no way of reading the messages. Two days later, WhatsApp joined Facebook and several other companies in filing an amicus brief in support of Apple in its fight against the FBI” reports WIRED’s Cade Metz in a detailed interview with the founders of WhatsApp Jan Koum and Brian Acton pubished last week. It has been reported that the FBI successfully cracked the Apple handset, after cooperation with Celebritte, a company which incidentally reportedly provided GSM jammers for the Directorate of Intelligence and Security.
CyberSecurity expert Itumeleng Garebatshabe, who runs a cybersecurity consultancy Intellegere Holdings, says WhatsApp has pretty much “closed off its platform from any third party access”. End-to-End Encryption, he says, means the communication will be so secure that not even FBI, “could crack that system”. To him that is a welcome development for both journalists and citizens. When The Business Weekly & Review asked him whether DIS couldn’t crack the system he paused and then added, “Look, it would take a seasoned guy maybe 100 years to crack one message”.
Meanwhile Government, in the aftermath of Serite arrest has been working to tighten the noose around potential whistleblowers at Government Enclave. This week, a Carter Morupisi Permanent Secretary to the President released a new savingram compelling Ministry heads to get non-disclosure agreements from their civil servants across the nation. Morupisi demands that all employees complete and sign the declaration form to be submitted by 29th April. “This is to mitigate the risk of leakage of confidential government information” concludes Morupisi.

In the absence of whistleblower protection, journalists were always careful about how they interact with their sources.

In the US law enforcement proponents say companies have a responsibility to assist law enforcement in its work, and therefore, that companies such as WhatsApp who are implementing end-to-end encryption should leave a kind of open door only accessible to law enforcement officials. But both Garetshabe and WhatsAppfounders say that would defeat the purpose of setting up encryption in the first place.  Serite says the security of such platforms as WhatsApp would greatly enhance the work of journalists in an environment where there is open attack on whistleblowers.
This debate flares up the same week that 300 plus journalists collaborated to produce stories from the biggest leak of the century, the Panama Paper, whose volcanic effects are still being felt worldwide.  Ntibinyane Ntibinyane Investigative journalist and partner at Ink Centre for Investigative Journalism, a new investigative journalism and freedom of information advocacy unit in Gaborone, was part of the worldwide probe.  Ntibinyane says in the absence of whistleblower protection, journalists were always careful about how they interact with their sources. However he says while WhatsApp’s decision is welcome journalists should always explore other avenues for secure communication rather than trusting a multi-national corporation with their work.

He says you could never trust that the security WhatsApp is providing will not be breached with the cooperation of the company. He urges journalists to use WhatsApp in their routine daily use but warns them to devise their own secure platforms when they engage in serious investigations that require a more secure environment. He gives the example of the Panama Leaks project.  “In the recent investigation for example, we developed our own encryption system to use” he explains.
The Business Weekly & Review attempts to get the views of DIS Director General Kgosi were futile by going to print. Meanwhile WhatsApp remains determined. “While we recognize the important work of law enforcement in keeping people safe, efforts to weaken encryption risk exposing people’s information to abuse from cybercriminals, hackers, and rogue states” the Jan and Brian

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•  Profit lifts to 68 percent

BancABC Botswana, a unit of the Atlas Mara Group, has seen its impairments decrease 95 percent for the full year ending December 31, 2015 from the prior corresponding period because of a recovery of default payment from a major corporate client. This week, Jitto Kurian, Managing Director (MD) of BancABC said that during the 2014 reporting period, the bank recorded a higher impairment because of a default by that major client, which has since recovered, dropping the loss significantly. During the 2014 financial year, BancABC impairments were as high as P110.1 million, but have since slowed down impressively to P5, 5 million by the 2015 because of the reduction being influenced by recoveries on significant corporate loan exposures during the year, which were provided for in the previous year.

 
Further, the bank managed to achieve a 46-percent growth in revenue despite operating on a low interest rate environment which could squeeze interest margins as well as a slow economic growth, where domestic output was just at 1 percent, according to Kurian.
Bank of Botswana (BoB) reduced the lending rate to as low as 6 percent, which had a negative impact on banks’ Net Interest Income (NII) and consequently the total income. However, Kurian’s bank managed to realise a marginal rise from P365 million to P375 million, while its total revenue grew by P164 million to record P517 million.

The positive performance was on the back of loan book growth, which increased by 44 percent.

 
Kurian is impressed by the 68-percent growth in profitability which recorded P120.2 million, being one of the only banks in Botswana to see an upward movement in profitability because of the challenging banking environment.
“The positive performance was on the back of loan book growth, which increased by 44 percent,” he said. BancABC loan book is at P5.7 billion, having grown from P3.9 billion previously. Loans and advances were largely financed by increase in deposits which at P6.2 billion were 29 percent above the previous year.

 
Kurian is confident that going forward BancABC’s strategy, which is enveloped within the greater Atlas Mara plan, is based on the hunger for growth and to become a leading financial institution in Africa. He said BancABC as a fairly new bank and still has a lot of areas which they can explore to grow the bank as well as create efficiency for its clientele.
He spoke of the recently introduced BancABC Mobi, the mobile banking platform which could drive Non-Interest income together with other planned initiatives in the space of Point Of Sale acquiring, internet banking enhancement, deposit taking and foreign currency dispensing ATMs.

 
In his views they shall all play a vital role in the bank’s strategy to increase its channels, improve customer service delivery and diversify the bank revenue streams while transforming the balance sheet and shore up the bank’s performance.

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The release of the so called Panama papers this past week has once again shown how society always seeks to demonise the wealthy and in so doing overlook the teething problem. The fact that Panama is a tax haven is very much well known and it is not a criminal offence to transact through a shelf company in that country if it will help minimize one’s tax liabilities, it’s simply a matter of being tax savvy. This is not to say all transactions linked to the leaked documents were legitimate. However, the main issue that we should seek to address as a society is as to why the wealthy would go to an extent of keeping their wealth in a country that they know little about just so that they could avoid paying taxes. Income tax is some states such as California are as high as 50% as this has often led to some of the technology billionaires relocating to more tax friendly countries in order to avoid paying huge amounts. Even the world’s most valuable company Apple at one point refused to repatriate foreign profits to the US citing high tax rates as a disincentive. Closer to home the tax rate is not as high however we cannot deny the mere fact that there is rampant abuse of tax collections. Taxes are primarily supposed to be used to fund public goods such as roads, hospitals, schools etc however we see a trend where the money is used to finance the extravagant lives of politicians and public officers. Taxes are used to buy private jets, build multi-million pula homes, and transport political party members to rallies, and fund overpriced and unnecessary projects. In South Africa just over a quarter of a billion in tax payer money was used to build a house for one person in an area that is far from being considered a prime area and to make matters worse the owner of the house earns a tax free salary. In Botswana just over half a billion was used to finance a ’glass manufacturing plant’ which has since been abandoned. No one would refuse to pay for something that they can find value in undertaking. Most rich businesses got to be rich by being able to account for their money. Thus it will be fool hard for them to pay more than they have just to add opulence to someone’s lifestyle. It is for these reasons that we end up with situations where the rich come up with ways of minimizing their tax obligations. In other countries the public system is so efficient to a point whereby something such as owning a car is more an issue of pride than it is a need. It is in these countries where people have no issues paying taxes because they know what their money is being used for. Before we jump onto the bandwagon and start demonizing those avoiding taxes we need to address issues that are driving them to do that and only then can we properly address the issue of tax avoidance holistically.

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Our Judiciary is going to need the stoutest antibiotic on earth, and to those who obtain comfort from invisible but supposedly invisible authorities, a praise song and little prayer.
The cumulative effect of incidents that continue to harm the perception and confidence of the public in the system is gathering mass.

 
In 2013 when the Chief Justice accused lawyers of “forum shopping” and suggested that some judges may have been engaging in acts of bribery, it shocked the nation – the shock will later be mitigated by an apology from the Chief Justice.  However, what remained was a dent on what Spencer Mogapi repeatedly refers to as the “halo effect” of the judiciary. At the time, litigants must have been wondering whether judges doing their cases received some bribes from the other party, or lawyer.

 
As if that was not enough, in 2015, the Chief Justice reported four judges of the High Court to the police over alleged misappropriation of public funds. After about twelve judges made a petition to the Chief Justice, Executive action followed suspending only four judges – their petition is the basis of the charge of misbehaviour. In my previous writings, I have decried the Chief Justice’s approach of reporting the matter to the police when one considers the public’s perceptions and confidence in the system. The Constitutional machinery was adequate to deal with the matter.

The suspension of only four judges leaving others, without any explanation, conjures suspicions of selective justice and favouritism and undue interference by the Executive in the affairs of the judiciary. The situation was not helped by apologies and expressions of loyalty from some judges.   The media recently carried reports of judges being overpaid at the Industrial Court. The treatment that the judges were given was different.

The Panama Papers are a disclosure of the names of prominent public figures and companies that have invested money in tax havens around the world.

 
The public has now to deal with the Panama Papers and Justice Kirby, the Judge President of the Court of Appeal, the highest court in the land – the bench of the older and wiser.  The Panama Papers are a disclosure of the names of prominent public figures and companies that have invested money in tax havens around the world.

 
Tax havens have been condemned by academics, judges, politicians and even some international bodies.  Writing about this phenomenon in the William and Marry Law Review, Professor Adam Rosenzweig describes the phenomenon as follows “unscrupulous taxpayers indefinitely defer paying their fair share of U.S. taxes by funneling their income through artificial companies in tax haven countries.

Tax havens threaten the long-term fiscal health of the country, undermining the ability of the government to address the pressing economic and social emergencies of the day, and thus the integrity of the modern state itself.” As Barack Obama stated on Tuesday, tax avoidance is a big global problem, according to him and a lot of it is legal. In 2009, he described the phenomenon as “gaming the system.” The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has also condemned tax the use of havens.

 
There is also judicial opinion against tax havens. In Latilla v. Inland Revenue Commissioners, Viscount Simons put it in these words: “My Lords, of recent years much ingenuity has been expended in certain quarters in attempting to devise methods of disposition of income by which those who were prepared to adopt them might enjoy the benefits of residence in this country while receiving the equivalent of such income without sharing in the appropriate burden of British taxation. Judicial dicta may be cited which point out that, however elaborate and artificial such methods may be, those who adopt them are ‘entitled’ to do so.

There is, of course, no doubt that they are within their legal rights, but that is no reason why their efforts, or those of the professional gentlemen who assist them in the matter, should be regarded as a commendable exercise of ingenuity or as a discharge of the duties of good citizenship. On the contrary, one result of such methods, if they succeed, is, of course, to increase pro tanto the load of tax on the shoulders of the great body of good citizens who do not desire, or do not know how, to adopt these manoeuvres.”

I ask of the reader – shouldn’t the simple fact that a judge is involved in any activity that may be labelled as “immoral” or “wrong”, even if it is not strictly illegal, call for an investigation?

 
Already, the reaction of some countries and prominent international bodies to the Panama Papers is telling. As soon as the papers were disclosed, the FIFA ethics prosecution chamber announced that it has “opened a preliminary investigation to review the allegations” linked to lawyer Juan Pedro Damiani of Uruguay who seats on the Ethics Committee. After the disclosure, Iceland’s Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson stepped down.

 
The preponderance of opinion appears to treat tax havens as an immorality. And this takes me to Judge President Kirby’s case.
I ask of the reader – shouldn’t the simple fact that a judge is involved in any activity that may be labelled as “immoral” or “wrong”, even if it is not strictly illegal, call for an investigation?  Justice Kirby is to be applauded for responding to the media reports. But is that enough?  Shouldn’t there be a clear and controlled investigation into all the factual and legal issues – including whether such conduct was not in contravention of some tax legislation in Botswana?  Isn’t this necessary for the public trust and confidence in the highest court in the land – to deflate the “balloon of suspicion” in the public’s mind?

 
It is said that Rabelais’ Judge Bridlegoose decided cases by throwing dice.  With such a legal system, one would never have cried over forum shopping – choosing a judge of your preference to throw the dice wouldn’t attract accusations bribery and reduce the confidence that the public has on the justice system, accusing judges of misappropriating public funds would not have deprived one of sleep and peace of mind and any judge shelving his money far away from his home, far away from the tentacles of the taxman, would not dip us into the fuzzy and incoherent waves of moral inquiries.

The post A tax haven, a judge and the image of the judiciary appeared first on Business Weekly & Review.

It is never easy to get a business off the ground. In fact most businesses die in their infancy, the mortality rate for businesses is quiet high. Chances are high that as much as eighty five percent of businesses that have been operating for less than five years will no longer be in business in another five years.  While many of these businesses would have closed shop one wonders what happens to the entrepreneur’s who started these businesses.

 
Often those that are employable go back into employment, yet others find a way to use the failure to evolve into something better.  Whatever can be said about starting and running a business easy is not one of those words that can be used to describe that life experience. There are those who dare to suggest that those who succeed in business are somewhat lucky. Those that try to argue that those that succeeded did so because they happened to have been at the right time at the right place.

But is it really?  Were they the only ones who were at the right time at the right place? Of course not, we have all heard of people who had the opportunity to get involved when the startup was at ground zero. Yet they for whatever reason known to them they choose not to get involved.  It doesn’t matter where that startup had been Facebook, Gabz FM or Mascom Wireless.

 

Every business has obstacles to overcome and how quickly they overcome these obstacles depend on the mindset of those involved in setting up that business.

 
Startups happen all the time, and the people who start these businesses do not do so in isolation. Yes of course no business idea can work unless the time and the place are right, but perhaps what is more important than the time and place is the mindset of the entrepreneur.  Every business has obstacles to overcome and how quickly they overcome these obstacles depend on the mindset of those involved in setting up that business. So whether or not your business works is not so dependent on external circumstance as some people would like you to believe. It depends a lot rather in the internal environment you create to nurture you business idea.

 
Luck it has been said is when preparation meets with opportunity. To be able to grab opportunity when it comes you must have done some advance preparatory work. This is what enables you not only to see it when it’s coming but also to make the most of it when it comes. Sometimes you will get the timing wrong and launch your business idea prematurely or a little too late.

Indeed you would have missed “the tide in the affairs of men” as Shakespeare put it. On such instances rather than give up successful entrepreneurs begin to work on getting it right.  This could include lobbying and creating an enabling environment for business to succeed,  Sometimes this could be years before the business opens doors. Opportunities are always there for those that are willing to break new boundaries and conquer new frontiers.

 
The greatest danger lies in going into an already familiar line of business without a clear and powerfully denominated unique selling proposition. Tied to this is the temptation to be a little bit of everything for everyone. Without realizing that unless you define the geographic, income or psychographic profile of your ideal client you’re bound to come up with a mismatched product offering.

 
Chances are high that there is congestion in the lines of business that are already established. This often makes it difficult to make a decent profit anyway because competitors are often busy undercutting each other hoping lower prices will give them an advantage. It’s a suicidal strategy especially for startups that do not have the cash flow or the volumes to keep the business afloat. When Dominoes Pizza entered the market there were already established Pizza chains, but they figured they could corner the market by promising to deliver pizza in less than forty minutes or else it’s free. When Federal Express first started there were already entrenched players in the courier business but they figured by saying that “if it has to absolutely, positively be there overnight’” they stood a fighting chance.

 

Before you go toe to toe on price with your competitors consider creating value first in the mind of the customer.

 
Of course money is an important factor of any buying decision but even then it is not always the only thing that people gauge. Businesses that compete solely on price often neglect other factors that affect and influence the buying decision and by so doing they put themselves at huge disadvantage. Unless you’re a wholesaler or selling generic once off products to price sensitive consumers the low price strategy is bound to fail just like anything that has not be thought through carefully.

 
So before you go toe to toe on price with your competitors consider creating value first in the mind of the customer. The reason why businesses close shop is not always necessarily because there is not market. Sometimes it could be simply that customers do not see the promise of value yet. Which means in that case your past failures would have been nothing but opportunities to start again, but more intelligently this time around. Which of is what resilient entrepreneurs always do.

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Botswana business is suffering, foreign companies are coming and getting large share of our business space because we lack innovation. Local companies and individual entrepreneurs have turned into copy cats, suffocating owners of great ideas who went an extra mile innovating. Whilst Batswana are concentrating on copying each other opening bars, operating taxis, and running saloons foreign innovators are exploring the un-explored opportunities.

 
Ours as a country has been short-term measures that cannot take us anywhere. We are now paying the price for lack of innovation, our roads are inadequate, and medical supplies expire now and again at Central Medical Stores (CMS). We still buy plastic and toilet paper from outside our borders. Young innovators have brought breath-taking innovations and have given up due to lack of proper funding.

The lack of innovation is compounded by the lack of innovative universities and institutions of higher learning.

 
The lack of innovation is compounded by the lack of innovative universities and institutions of higher learning as well as frustrated by corporate and fiscal red tape. The limited budget that is given to University of Botswana (UB), the biggest university in the country to conduct research, is a clear example of our non commitment to research and innovation. Innovators rely mostly on new research to come up with much needed solutions and mind blowing initiatives. University of Botswana is nowhere near the stage of conducting ground breaking research that is needed to aid innovators. In fact what is there is theory on how it wishes things could be done. UB should be in the forefront when it comes to research and innovation.

 
Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) has entered the fray and expectations are that it would improve the standard of innovation through research. If BUIST follows in the footsteps of UB then Batswana will never be competitive. Government should properly fund these two universities to conduct research. That would also help government make informed decisions on economic diversification.

 
Instead of forcing everybody else into agriculture, government would be able to juggle many sectors that have opportunities for economic growth. That is what we call diversification, we cannot be running from agriculture to mining and back again to agriculture, when we should rather be exploring other unexplored fields, but this needs innovation. Batswana should be given an opportunity to innovate in practical terms not theoretically.

Government has come up with Innovation Hub, a commendable idea but it should be supported by both empirical and innovative research. There is no need to be coming up with ideas that will never work, or those that would be too expensive for the market.
Supporting government institutions are also not making it easy for innovative Batswana to flourish. Their funding and training is limited to persons and concerns they have chosen not informed by research. This excludes the majority of the young population who theoretically have longest to live and are the future of this country. Information and Technology (IT) graduates have been left in the lurch; whilst medical students are expected to serve instead of coming up with new revolutionary ideas that can make Botswana stand out in the world of medicine.

Botswana has got a lot of natural resources but we are failing to utilize them.

 
Botswana has got a lot of natural resources but we are failing to utilize them. Batswana’s mindset just as that of government must change. We can’t just be consumers of goods and services in the global world but we should also be producers. Botswana should come with ideas targeting the world market not only the limited local market. Despite being blessed with a beautiful country with beautiful scenery, and too few people, we have failed to market our tourism. There are no new innovative ways of marketing our tourism. We are still selling it as it was sold 20 years ago.

 
Visiting Botswana Trade Fair each year will give you an idea how far behind we are lacking in innovation. If it’s not changing of stall positions or colours then everything remains the same. What you found in a stall five years back you will still find five years to come. There are no new ideas and people have lost interest in visiting these fairs. Exhibitors are passing their time visiting other stalls, because no one is visiting their stalls.

 
As for the corporate world it’s heartbreaking. Majority of all the multi-national companies operating in Botswana are run from South Africa. This is so because we have not shown innovative prowess that our neighbours are showing. Ask yourself this question, why would banks procure their ATM cards in South Africa if we had able people here who could make them locally? Why are we still buying toothpick from foreign countries with so many raw materials in our midst? The answer is simple we lack the innovative prowess, we have reduced ourselves to consumers not producers.

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Ditshwanelo Human Rights Film festival commenced on March 30th, with its annual showcase of films that provide a glimpse into the different facets of human rights issues. Opening this year’s festival was a South African documentary titled ‘The Shore Break’, an engaging real life story that explores the complex layers of development. At the heart of the matter, is the notion of progress, and its link to people’s needs and the interests of corporations.

 
An award winning documentary, the film begins as a journey through the South African wild coast, with rich undertones of original songs contributed by Pondo musician Ntombe Thongo and occasional praise poetry. The landscape is impeccably beautiful, with captivating rolling hills, pastoral wilderness and lush plant life. As the film draws closer, in the coast, there’s a community called the Amadiba of Pondoland—a close knitted group of people that have a deep reverence of their traditional way of life and their land. Although a naturally beautiful place, it is without some of the basic infrastructures such as roads and health services which has come as a predicament to the Pondo people who have to walk hours to access basic services.

 

This documentary, which was directed by Ryley Grunenwald, is built around two opposed protagonists, one who is Nonhle Mbuthuma and the other, her cousin Zamile ‘Madiba’ Qunya.

 
This documentary, which was directed by Ryley Grunenwald, is built around two opposed protagonists, one who is Nonhle Mbuthuma and the other, her cousin Zamile ‘Madiba’ Qunya. Nonhle, who is opposed to the mining, is seen as a steadfast heroine and the voice of the people. She views mining as a practice that will disrupt their simple lives, stuff the pockets of the few ‘at the top’ and cause endless pollution. On the other hand, Zamile, who at first comes across as the voice of ‘reason’, infers that the mining will rescue the people from abject poverty. Later as the film unfolds, the community finds him to be self-serving in his pursuit.

 
With the interests of Australian mining company to access titanium in the coastal dunes of Pondoland and SANRAL, who desire to lay a freeway across the land, the community is promised riches and infrastructure that will turn their ‘dusty’ town into a progressive village with brick houses, roads and jobs.  The Pondo people find themselves in a confounding stance, one that entails a sacrifice on either end.

If they decide to be pro mining, they risk their land been taken away, their fertile lands polluted by mining practices and only a few gaining from the opportunity. Being against mining, however, comes as a thorn in the skin of the government, whom the villagers has accused of intentionally holding back some development until their request is met. This matter is marred with legal issues that are still ongoing.

 
“We will die protecting our land from vultures,” says Nonhle Mbuthuma in the film, and is currently in hiding after one of her collegues, Siphosiphi ‘Bazooka’ Rhadebe, was assassinated just a week ago. Her activism, which has stretched to more than a decade, has put a threat to her life and others in the Amadiba Crisis Committee.

 
Grunenwald clearly depicts this difficult duality between tradition and progress, and gives the audience a chance to self-reflect and judge the situation on their own terms. The documentary also raises the issue of traditional leadership and its fight for necessary recognition in a modern world that renders such a hierarchy ‘outdated’.

The film also served as a context and somewhat an echo for what happened in Botswana relative to the CKGR situation.

 
At the core of this film is the motive of ‘progress’—if it is, by design, absolutely beneficial for those it is imposed. From whose perspective must progress be considered? Is it ethical, to turn an integrated holistic culture into a consumerist one for the short term benefit of jobs and roads without reflecting on the effects it will have on their wellbeing? Are community members fully involved at all levels of decision making when it comes to development or are decisions made on their behalf? These are some questions that surface as you watch the hour length movie.

 
The film also served as a context and somewhat an echo for what happened in Botswana relative to the CKGR situation. Similar apprehensions, as held by most of the Pondo people, were also that of the San from the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve in being relocated primarily for the diamond mining industry’s interest. There was tension between the government and the Basarwa and countless legal battles.

 
To date, this is an issue that is still happening in the Wild Coast, and it has heightened to suspicious deaths and assassinations. The shore break is a captivating, honest film that shows the relationship between people, the environment and multinationals, and it was quite refreshing to see a ‘disadvantaged’ small community crafting their own voice, taking a stand and invoking their constitutional rights instead of silently giving in to a development that they have not yet understood its scope and intention. The villagers still hope to promote the area’s ecotourism potential.

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The proposed takeover of SABMiller by Belgian brewer, AB InBEv will not affect business in the local brewery, a top corporate lawyer closer to the deal assured regulators this week. Appearing before the Competition Authority (CA) in a public hearing, the parties involved in the cutthroat beer deal moved to assure competition watchdogs that the beer merger estimated at around P2.5 trillion does not come with structural changes to the operations of Sechaba Breweries.

 
The takeover of SABMiller would create one of the worlds’ biggest companies. SABMiller, the brewers of Castle Lite has a minority stake in Sechaba Breweries Limited Holdings, the parent company to Kgalagadi Breweries Limited (KBL). Other investors include Botswana Development Corporation and Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund.

It appears the competition watchdog has been unsettled by the deal fearing that local suppliers of raw materials to KBL may be affected by the takeover.

 
It appears the competition watchdog has been unsettled by the deal fearing that local suppliers of raw materials to KBL may be affected by the takeover. KBL relies on local suppliers for its sugar, gas, maize meal, coal, stationery and other services such as electricity, water and transport. However, Rizwan Desai, corporate lawyer representing Sechaba struck a reassuring chord saying the belgian brewing ginat does not have operations in Botswana and would allow Sechaba to conduct its business the way it has been under SABMiller.

 
“Proposed takeover would not change Sechaba incentives with local suppliers,” Desai said, further stating that there will be no job losses. Appearance before the Competition Authority follows a conclusion of merger between the two brewing giants that will catapult AB InBev to control a third of the global beer market share.

AB InBev has said it expects to make cost savings of at least US$1.4 billion a year (annual run rate) by the end of the fourth year following completion of the deal.

 
The SABMiller Board has stated that it intends to recommend that their shareholders vote in favour of the transaction. The offer price is £44 per share, as previously agreed. The announcement stated that the transaction is currently expected to complete making way for the “change of control” from SABMiller to AB InBev to happen in the second half of 2016. However, as the timing of regulatory approvals can be uncertain, SABMiller and AB InBev have agreed to a final deadline for completion in May 2017 (the ‘long stop date’), which could agree to extend further if necessary.

 
AB InBev has said it expects to make cost savings of at least US$1.4 billion a year (annual run rate) by the end of the fourth year following completion of the deal. These are over and above the annual run rate cost savings of at least US$1,050 million that SABMiller announced on 9 October 2015.

The new savings are expected to come from the cost bases of both AB InBev and SABMiller, comprising of procurement and engineering third party costs and reengineering of processes, brewery and distribution efficiency gains as well as best practice sharing relating to cost management as well as efficiency improvements and productivity enhancements in administrative operations. Other gains are expected to arise from corporate headquarters and overlapping regional headquarters.

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In the first ever successful privatization of a government institution, Botswana Telecommunication Corporation Limited (BTCL), 314.3 million share offer applications were turned down at the just ended Initial Public Offering (IPO), after more than an expected turnout of Batswana overwhelmed the offering in a stampede to become BTCL shareholders.

 
In a statement issued by BTCL Board of Directors yesterday (Thursday), The Business Weekly & Review established that the company would refund the public an amount P314.3 million, the money that comes with share offer applications that could not be approved at BTCL. This in simple terms means that there was more than expected interest from the public for the BTCL shares evidenced by the 776 333 400 share offer applications against the available 462 000 000.

It means that the public demand for BTCL shares was double what BTCL could supply.

 
At stock broking firm Motswedi Securities, Head Researcher Garry Juma said that it was clear that the shares were oversubscribed almost two-fold, an approximately 314 333 400 applications.
“It means that the public demand for BTCL shares was double what BTCL could supply, which saw 314 333 400 applications being turned down,” he said. In his view BTCL IPO is one of the most successful IPOs in Botswana, although he could not compare it to that of Choppies, which was 4 times oversubscribed, because of the variance in the nature of the two offers. One fact to consider is that the Choppies IPO was open to everyone, including foreign investors, while the BTCL IPO was only limited to Botswana citizens.

 
“Batswana came in full force to purchase BTCL shares,” Juma said. BTCL directors said that 50,301 qualifying applications were received for a total of 776,333,400 Shares in respect of the 462,000,000 Shares available to the public on offer, representing a 1.68 times over-subscription. “Of these, applications for 414,238,800 Shares, representing approximately 90 percent of the 462,000,000 Shares on offer, were received from individuals and citizen owned companies, while the balance was received from institutional investors,” BTCL said.

 

Looking at the impressive demand for BTCL shares, it is a sign that there is sufficient money in Botswana.

 
“The Board is pleased to advise that all applicants in relation to the 462,000,000 Shares were allotted their first 900,000 Shares applied for in full. Those applying for in excess of 900,000 Shares received the first 900,000 Shares and approximately 11.45 percent of the balance applied for,” BTCL announced.

 
Looking at the impressive demand for BTCL shares, Juma said it is a sign that there is sufficient money in Botswana, while investment opportunities are limited. He said Motswedi Securities expects BTCL to do well on the BSE, when it starts trading today. “The IPO was set at P1 per share, with an impressive Price – to – Earnings (PE) ratio. Within the first six months, we would not be surprised if the share price jumps up to trade at around P1.15 thebe each,” he said.

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With its latest acquisitions, top-notch tourism outfit, Wilderness Safaris will now start operating in Kenya and Rwanda, exposing its portfolio to European currency, thus diversifying their currency from being US Dollar based.

 
The group currently gets a lot of foreign currency because most of visitors into Southern Africa are from the United States, while East African market normally attracts European tourists.
The Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) led by Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Keith Vincent has operations focused on safaris in very wild, pristine and remote parks. The company has announced the acquisition of Governors’ Camp Group of Companies in Rwanda, marking an expansion of the group portfolio into the East African market.

 

Wilderness has concluded agreements with Monitor International Holdings Limited (“the Vendors”) to acquire 51 percent of the share.

 
With the board of directors chaired by Parks Tafa, the operators of Mombo Lodge in the heart of the Okavango says its current operations are concentrated in southern Africa, and management is of the view that acquisition of a controlling stake in the Governors’ business represents a compelling opportunity for expansion into East Africa.

 
Wilderness has concluded agreements with Monitor International Holdings Limited (“the Vendors”) to acquire 51 percent of the shares and shareholder loan accounts of Musiara Limited, Governors’ Aviation Limited, Goodison Ninety One Limited, Goodison Forty Two Limited (all registered and operating in Kenya); and Governors’ Camps Rwanda Limited and Governors ‘Safaris Rwanda Limited (both registered  and operating in Rwanda).

 
Wilderness directors stated that the above acquisitions constitute the Transaction and the above named companies own and operate the Governors’ Camp Collection of camps and lodges in East Africa. “The remaining 49 percent of the equity in these companies will continue to be held by the Vendors who represent the interests of the founders and previous and present management,” Wilderness directors stated.

The Governors’ Camp Collection, founded in 1976, owns and operates a selection of award-winning safari camps and lodges in the heart of East Africa’s best game viewing areas.

 
The Governors’ Camp Collection, founded in 1976, owns and operates a selection of award-winning safari camps and lodges in the heart of East Africa’s best game viewing areas. “This is one of the oldest and most iconic safari brands in Africa,” directors said, further citing that the location in the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya has been featured in multiple BBC and other wildlife documentaries. They also stated that the brand was expanded into Rwanda in 2007, through the addition of Sabyinyo Silverback Lodge, a mountain gorilla trekking offering in Virunga National Park.

 
The parties also believe that post measure; the Governors’ main market is sourced from Europe, whereas Wilderness Safaris’ main source market is the United States. “This creates cross selling opportunities, best operating practices, in terms of lodge operations, aviation and reservations can be shared to mutual advantage,” the directors said.

 
Both parties are committed to a program to boost future occupancies and revenue by renovation of the lodges and targeted marketing expenditure. The Governors’ business also represents an ideal springboard for expansion into other East African countries using a well-known local brand and management who are familiar with local markets and conditions.

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The diversified micro-finance company, Letshego Holdings Limited traded the highest value of shares on Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) during the 2016 first quarter (q1) annihilating other blue-chip listed firms.

 
BSE Interim Market Development Manager Kopano Bolokwe said Letshego, a company headed by Group Managing Director (MD) Chris Low traded shares to the value of P339.1 million as at March 31st. By market value, Letshego is the second largest company trading on the domestic bourse. The company has been vigorous in looking for new acquisitions which increased market value, and the value of new business, while brightening investor return prospects.

 
For the reporting period ending 31st December 2015, the financial services firm recorded a groundbreaking achievement of P1.03 billion in gross profits, which is by far the highest net profit on BSE listed companies. Letshego’s last recorded share price was 270 thebe each share.

The group is also expanding in and across borders with operations in as far as Namibia.

 
As a runner up to Letshego, Sefalana Group, the first company to list on the BSE saw its shares valued at P91.3 million exchanging hands. The Chandra Chauhan led company, has of late, been rebranding and reclassifying itself to what it looks like a middle income shopping retail supermarket, with products like online shopping, the first of its kind locally.

However the group is also expanding in and across borders with operations in as far as Namibia.  Sefalana is worth P3 billion in market capitalisation with profitability level of around P200 million. Sefalana set a pace for its pan-African competitor, the Choppies group, which traded shares worth P65 million. The Ramachandran Ottapathu led company which has grown to become the third largest listed company on BSE by value is now worth P5.4 billion, more valuable than all commercial banks but FNBB.

 
The gigantic Botswana Insurance Holdings Limited (BIHL), which operates a consortium of companies, amongst them the iconic Botswana Life, also emerged amongst biggest traders. Currently headed by new CEO Catherine Lesetedi-Letegele, the group traded shares worth P58.1 million as at March 31st, First National Bank Botswana (FNBB), the largest company on the BSE which saw its shares making P41.7 million, the Steven Bogatsu led financial institution is the largest company trading on the BSE by P9.7 billion market cap.

 
However, these top 5 largest traders for the three months ending March 31st accounted for 84.8 percent of total turnover during the quarter. As at 31 March 2016, the BSE had recorded a turnover of P702.2 million from a volume 187.1 million shares traded. During the same period in 2015, the BSE had registered a turnover of P557.8 million and a total volume of 154.7million shares traded, depicting a significant growth.

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Given the rate at which most of our projects fail to attain efficiency in as far as the universal objectives of any undertaking are concerned, it is amazing how government allows most the completed facilities to become white elephants.

 
Many of our projects are unable to realise the set objectives in as far as cost, time and quality/performance are concerned but what is of greater concern is the underutilisation of the very few projects that  have been successfully delivered.

Morupule B, airports, stadia were all delivered late, above budget and not to the prescribed standard.

 
Morupule B, airports, stadia were all delivered late, above budget and not to the prescribed standard and yet government has made every effort to ensure that these projects achieved their sole aim.
It is therefore surprising that despite the politics surrounding the Botswana National Youth Council (BNYC), the youth art facilities located at Fairgrounds are becoming a white elephant. This not because of lack of interest from the youth for which it is intended, or safety concerns from the authorities and the general public, but mainly due to politics.

 
When the Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture disbanded the national executive committee of the BNYC surely he had a plan in mind in as far as managing its assets and ensuring minimal interruption to its affairs goes. If not, then he should have taken a cue from the Minister of Transport who dismissed the entire board of Air Botswana together with its general manager and yet succeeded in ensuring minimal disruptions to the operations of the national airliner.

The youth who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of such facilities are left with fewer options but to end up resorting to a life of crime.

Although we are without verity, the mere fact that the construction of the BNYC facilities has managed to escape controversies associated with such projects should act as an indication that it has been able to achieve its main objectives.

 
However, it makes no sense to attain project objectives and fail on the overall aim which is to capacitate our youth. Today the swimming pools are without water, the buildings are in a dilapidated state and the baboons around Fairgrounds seem to be more at home in the complex.

 
The youth who are supposed to be the beneficiaries of such facilities are left with fewer options but to end up resorting to a life of crime. We seem to be more concerned with the monetary aspect of projects as that is where individuals stand to make financial gains and in so doing we often lose sight of our goals.

 
We seldom hear of sports complexes in Masunga, Maun, Molepolole and Serowe which were aimed at developing the youth in those villages. Every speech by a politician will include “youth empowerment” but one has to wonder if they are really sincere as their actions seem to indicate something else.

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•  For some time now companies have not submitted

Two notorious quasi-government institutions, Botswana Railways (BR) and the National Development Bank (NDB) have for the second year running failed to file their audited financial results with Office of the Auditor General.

 
The failure to file audited financial results by these  parastatals means they are also robbing the taxman his share of the companies’ income tax. Diketso Phalalo, Partner at Tax Preparer Botswana said that Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) collects 22 percent of companies’ profit as income tax.

For some time now, the embattled BR has been failing to submit audited reports to government.

 
“So, late submissions or no submissions at all mean late collection of taxes or no tax collected at all. Yes, there is a huge impact on the economy, again looking at the fact that those are companies that make billions of Pula,” she said, when queried on how the economy was affected when companies either file audited results late or not at all.

 
For some time now, the embattled BR has been failing to submit audited reports to government. Auditor General Pulane Letebele has noted in her latest report for the financial year ended 2015 that it has been some time since BR had submitted their accounts for audit and subsequent discussion by the statutory bodies and state enterprises committee in the relevant year of account.

 
It appears, according to the Auditor General, that BR under the stewardship of Dominic Ntwaagae had sought and was granted an extension of time for the accounts of the year ended March 31, 2015 as the audit of the accounts for the year ended March 31, 2014  was expected to be concluded in December 2015.

 
However, BR has been making headlines after the media got hold of a confidential document that showed that the executive management escalated prices during the procurement of the new BR Express Train coaches in a bid to corruptly help the parties involved to gain high profit.
The BR Express owners have been under public pressure to account for the new passenger train that is malfunctioning, yet P280 million was spent on the procurement of new coaches.
BR is funded by government, and it enjoys the annual cash injection despite this failure to account for the millions it receives.
“These persistent delays are a matter for concern,” Letebele said, adding that she trusted that the organisation would make all efforts to bring this matter under control and be in line with the intention of the Act.

NDB was awarding loans carelessly to individuals and companies that in turn failed to pay resulting in impairments.

 
On the other hand, the Auditor General has also voiced her dissatisfaction with the non-availability of the NDB’s audited accounts. Letebele notes in the new report that in October 2015, her office addressed a communication to the CEO, Lorato Morapedi, requesting for the submission of the audited accounts and report of the bank for the financial year ended March 31, 2015 for review, in line with the existing arrangement.

 
In response to her request, Letebele says her office received communication from Morapedi informing her that the accounts of the financial year ended March 31, 2015 were not ready for submission as the audit had not been concluded. “This is the second year running that the bank is not able to submit the audited accounts which is attributable to systems change which necessitated thorough audits,” Letebele said.

 
NDB has also been in the headlines for the wrong  reasons. Liabilities of the government-owned bank were so high that it was struggling to survive without any cash injection or bailout.  Those in the know had said that NDB was awarding loans carelessly to individuals and companies that in turn failed to pay resulting in impairments threatening to skyrocket while revenue was at its lowest.

 
Morapedi subsequently sought to allay fears that the bank was headed for complete insolvency, promising that her management  team was redirecting the state bank towards better times.
NDB which was on the process of privatisation failed comply with privatisation requirements, leading to a decision to delay privatisation.

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Around this time last year I met a client I had not seen in a while, in fact it had been three to four years since I last saw him. When I last saw Skuta (not his real name) he was excited about a business he had just started as he had left the client organisation where I first met him when he was the right hand man to the CEO.

 
When I met Skuta last year, I naturally inquired about how his business doing. He said the business was doing great, but he wasn’t too good himself. He explained that he had just come out of rehab. His business partner checked him into rehab because he was doing hard drugs. He said as his business picked up and the money flowed in so did new friends with new thrills. He lost his footing and rolled with the wrong crowd. “These guys were high rollers, they introduced me to drugs and women and I got hooked. I could not get out. I was trapped,” he says.

The final straw, he says, was when his wife left him and he lost custody of his little daughter.

 
The final straw, he says, was when his wife left him and he lost custody of his little daughter. Not only did he lose some of his belongings, but also his self respect; being unfit to be a father. Skuta has managed to beat drugs, but drinks a lot, he says. When I met him at the time it was a Friday afternoon and he was, as the youth put it, already “wasted”.

 
If you have ever been around people who are a bit tipsy you know that they tend to be a little freer and a lot more open about their opinions and what they think about you than they normally would. Sometimes they even get philosophical about life. On this particular day Skuta was no exception. He told me that he used to think that I was a fraud and in fact wanted to prove it then.

Now, I must admit that the guy used to strike me as somewhat arrogant and I had a nagging suspicion that he did not think highly of me. This was evidenced by the fact that he never returned my calls, reply my emails or speak to me unless the CEO was present. According to his confession, on that day I got the business because the CEO liked me.

Temptation, no matter who you are and what you do, will always be there.

 
“But now I have a lot of respect for you, Lets,” he continued. I asked why he no longer took me for a fraud and he replied: “Because one day we procured your services to facilitate at a team building session. Later after dinner we watched as one of the young ladies started to flirt with you. I of all the people watched you like a hawk to see if you would go for the kill, as I was eager to prove that you were a fraud. Unfortunately you did not pull the trigger and that is when I began to suspect that somehow you may be real.”

 
Now, I must admit that I remember the night. The young lady had everything to awaken the monster in any normal hot blooded heterosexual male. I remember sitting at the table and thinking what the hell; just pull the damn trigger. Besides, you are away from home and your wife will never know. Yes, I am ashamed to admit that on that particular night I fought a particularly virulent strain of temptation. However, by the grace of God I managed to sneak away to my room before things got ugly.

 
The point is not how mightily I fought a good fight but that as the Bible says we are all sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God. Temptation, no matter who you are and what you do, will always be there. We all get tempted to do things that will derail us and ruin our lives and the opportunities to do so are always present. The antidote to temptation is to always remember not who you are but who you want to be. That way you go toe to toe with temptation not as the person that you’re but as the person you can become.

 
A few days ago I met Skuta again, this time he was clean and sober. He told me that he had just come back from rehab, this time he was doing away with alcohol. He said: “Lets, one drink is too many and a thousand never enough. All I have to do is guard against taking my first drink. I am clean, I am happy and no longer a miserable powerless prisoner I used to be. I cannot wait to get my life back on track and rebuild my relationship with my daughter as well as my family because I burnt a lot of bridges during my drug and alcohol addiction.”

We are not perfect, perhaps we will never be, but we should try.

 
Temptation never quite goes away; it stalks you and lurks in the shadows waiting for your moment of weakness and vulnerability before it pounces. You just get better at fighting it or avoiding it. Whether it is drugs, women, men or spendthrift behavior, the odds will always be against you. You will always be outnumbered that is why you must always be vigilant. The last things you need are friends that are not really friends but accomplices. We could all do with a little help from our friends, people who will challenge and inspire you to go for the highest and the greatest that is in you. If you just have two or three of such people then you are good to go. Forget the rest.

 
There is nothing as frustrating as knowing that you are not living up to what deep down inside you know you are capable of becoming. It is not always easy to be at your best or to align your actions with your hopes and dreams. This is what Apostle Paul meant when he talked about fighting the good fight. He said: “I don’t really understand myself for the good I want to do, I do not do and the wrong I do not want to do, I do.”

 
Living a life of virtue, meaning and purpose requires not only constant renewal, repentance and vigilance but also the faith and resilience to keep on fighting the good fight. We are not perfect, perhaps we will never be, but we should try, we should aim for it and work on our imperfections day by day.

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Despite Judge President Kirby’s explanation on Gabz FM (going out of tradition), one still struggles to dispel the notion that investigations must be conducted. Kirby’s explanation, voluntarily submitted, still remains a good deed, yet, one which does not extinguish the need for investigations. So far, it is only his side of the story that has been accounted so far. As judges like to say, “audiatur et altera pars”, hear the other side. It is a rule of fair play.

 
The nation has not heard the other side from a detached, independent and impartial source. When the President Ian Khama suspended the four High Court judges and constituted a tribunal, it was for the same reason. Like Kirby, these judges had also, although not by radio, attempted to justify their actions.

 
If this process of investigation is not invoked, the nation must know why those who chose not to invoke it decided so. In that case, the reason is likely to be that no law has been broken (currently the common view) and no wrong has been done (a question that has rarely been visited). In any event, “justice must be seen to be done”. The public must not be left to the pain of speculation and conjecture.

The investigation must establish when (the years) Judge President engaged in the transaction.

 
The investigation must establish when (the years) Judge President engaged in the transaction, the exact nature of the transaction, who (the parties) was involved in Botswana and outside Botswana, how much money was involved and a timeline of activities, if any, from the beginning up to the end and the public offices (he has held several offices) that Kirby held during the transaction.

 
Such an objective carpet of facts will assist in determining whether or not there might have been some illegality or wrongdoing.  While Kirby’s findings are final when he sits on the bench, they are not necessarily so when on radio. Also to be established is the use the money was put to whilst in Panama.  It was reported this week that the offices of the Mossack Fonseca, the law firm that was engaged, were raided by the police officers who wanted to “establish the use of the firm for illicit activities”.

 
The question, which is rarely visited, regarding whether or not Kirby’s conduct breaches any standards of conduct for judges can only be determined after a thorough investigation. For instance, while Kirby states that he was not aware of the engagement of Mossack Fonseca, upon investigation, one could arrive at the conclusion that he ought to have been aware.

 
It is concerning that up to date, the nation has not heard the Chief Justice speak. In the previous two incidents that I made reference to in the previous column, the Chief Justice’s voice featured. During the “forum shopping scandal,” the Chief Justice issued a statement. By reporting or threatening to do so, the Chief Justice was also making a statement on the “misappropriation of funds” issue. This is becoming a trend.

During the opening of the legal year, when the Minister of Justice and Kirby complained that the Chairperson of the Law Society was rude to Justice Brand, the Chief Justice never uttered a word, notwithstanding that he was the host.

 
According to the former Chief Justice of Western Australia, the late David Malcolm, said this about the role of a Chief Justice: “The role of a Chief Justice is one of leadership. The Chief Justice is expected to be the spokesperson and representative of the Judiciary in the State in its dealings with the executive government and the community.

By going on radio, Kirby went out of tradition.

The Chief Justice has an executive role as the head of the Court as well as the head of the Judiciary in the State.” Rather than hearing first from Judge Kirby, one would have expected to hear from the institution; the steps, if any, that it intends to take or have taken and its overall view on the subject. And as a leader of the Judiciary, the Chief Justice would have been the proper person to hear from.

 
If what Kirby did, by going on radio and explaining his involvement or lack of, in Panama tax havens, is treated as precedent, it could constitute a dangerous precedent for current and future judges. By going on radio, Kirby went out of tradition.

I am not aware of the full history, but it may be that he is the first active judge to ever go on radio. I imagine that the Chief Justice would have gone on radio on many occasions if he had thought that the option was widely open to him. Lord Widgery, Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales (1971-80) once said: “The best judge is the man who is least known to the readers of the Daily Mail.” He advised that “judges should not court publicity and certainly should not do their work in such a way as to catch the eye of the newsman.”

I remember that when the former Chief Justice, the late Nganunu was accused of trying to interfere with the duties of a magistrate in 2008, he spoke freely to the media. Apart from the Chief Justice and Judge President, other judges who have been involved in media-attracting incidents do not seem to favour the idea.  Perhaps it is nowadays all a question of taste. I think it is a risky enterprise.

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Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA) has been turned into a research arm, but its findings, which are very meaningful to the economy of the country, are being ignored by those who walk the corridors of power.

 
Every year government use the taxpayer’s money to foot the bill for BIDPA research costs only to shun the findings. Who can forget the study the think tank organisation conducted on the poultry sector?  Its recommendations have not been implemented let alone made public. It boggles the mind why government ignores studies conducted by one of Africa’s renowned institution.

 
Yes, renowned institution, BIDPA is ranked fourth among think tanks on the African continent in the recently released 2015 Global Go To Think Tank Index. This clearly shows a remarkable achievement for an institution that does not get a glance from its own government.

BIDPA fulfils its mandate of seeking answers to the challenges we face, but the political leadership continues to make un-informed decisions.

 
BIDPA has continually improved its ranking over the years. It was ranked fifth in the same index in 2014, while in 2013 and 2012 the institution was ranked 10th and 12th respectively. In 2011 it occupied 29th place. This trend is a reflection of growth in the delivery of the think tank’s mandate.

 
Unfortunately this has not been welcome as the political arm of government is hell-bent on maintaining its grip on power, in fear of the implementing recommendations that could jeopardise its popular appeal with the masses.

 
If you check the BIDPA library you will be shocked to learn that informative information that could have guided our government policy implementation lie idle and no one gives a hoot.
Those compiled reports and recommendations are based on information gathered from the population. BIDPA fulfils its mandate of seeking answers to the challenges we face, but the political leadership continues to make un-informed decisions. These studies impact on our lives.

 
From fong-kong cars to exorbitant charges by banks to their customers, are all studies that BIDPA has conducted and delivered in black and white. Leaving these studies to lie in the shelves and gather dust amounts to public funds going down the drain just because the whims of a few. These are funds that could be used for something else, such as providing water to the Basarwa of CKGR or procuring decent transport for school children who continue to perish on our roads while packed in trucks like cattle.

 
If BIDPA studies were even considered, Members of Parliament (MPs) would not be spending countless hours debating uninformed motions. These are public hours they are wasting while billing the nation for some of the most useless and clueless debates; that lack vision and are totally uninformed to say the least.

 
This columnist calls on MPs, on their own individual capacity, to visit BIDPA and access free information, sourced by professionals who are not afraid of political lines. It would empower them and improve their knowledge on the country’s economic matters.
Everything that is not going well for our country at the moment, BIDPA is better informed and placed to show us the way forward.

Batswana are funding BIDPA to do studies for the benefit of the country, let those studies benefit us.

From mining to service industries, BIDPA has assembled the best people to advice us on these matters. Frustrating these professionals can only lead to them jumping ship and being snatched by some of the region’s big think tanks. They are watching and very interested in these professionals.

 
Ignoring BIDPA’s research findings is government worst mistake that has led the country to economic stagnation and brought more problems to ordinary Batswana. It has also benefited the rich who have managed to create monopolies at the expense of new entrepreneurs who are failing to break into the market due to protectionism from big influential companies and individuals. In turn this has led to SMMEs, known for its ability to create job, to collapse as these cannot compete with moneyed policy influencers that want things done their way.

 
Before it’s too late, legislators should advocate for the empowerment of BIDPA. If they don’t they will continue to recklessly squander the money God gave us through diamonds on no-starters. The country is busy throwing money into failing public corporations without the input of think tanks that can advice meaningfully. How many more billions do we want to waste before we wake up?

 
Batswana are funding BIDPA to do studies for the benefit of the country, let those studies benefit us. We better appreciate these studies with good knowledge that they were done in good faith.

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