CMB returned license back to NBFIRA
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The Statutory manager of Capital Management Botswana (CMB) is reported to have proposed a settlement as the only way out in the dispute between the former and the Botswana Public Officers’ Pension Fund (BPOPF). On the other hand the regulator, Non-Bank Financial Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA) wants the two to address their contractual issues.
CMB had initially proposed a settlement in the form of arbitration but was rejected by the BPOPF at the time. This was at a stage when the two where tussling over the appointment of a statutory manager when BPOPF had the backing of NBFIRA. It is understood that the statutory manager has forwarded communication to BPOPF and CMB indicating his desire for a settlement in the matter that involves asset that are in the value of about P450 million.
While CMB has demonstrated that the assets are alive, there is a twist in that they were disposed for P50 million which was paid to BPOPF and they are now in the custody of a third party. The statutory manager has discovered that CMB has no revenue, it effectively just a shell hence this is could have influenced his verdict for a settlement.
On 18 May 2018, Regina Sikalesele Vaka, the Chief Executive Officer of Bona Life wrote a letter to CMB directors requesting information for Bona Life financial statement audit and financials. In the letter she acknowledged property namely: Equity in commercial property company, Mr Car Wash (Pty Ltd Botswana; Equity in commercial property company, Woodword Pty Ltd Botswana; Bond in property development SPV, Manor Squad Services (South Africa); and Residential Property Lot 226 (Botswana). While the narrative that the assets were missing, CMB directors had pointed to this letter as evidence of the existence of the property and that partners were alive to it. But now, this property has been disposed to a third party.
CMB directors are concerned that the statutory manager is going ahead with the CMB liquidation whereas at the same time he is proposing a settlement. CMB directors are also concerned that the people involved in the matter are at most conflicted because they have social and business relationships.
CMB WANTED TO RETURN LICENCE TO NBFIRA
After several court actions and inflammatory exchanges between Capital Management Botswana (CMB) and the regulator, Non-Bank Financial Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA) and other partners such as Botswana Public Officers’ Pension Fund (BPOPF), the directors of the once famed asset managing company had resolved to return their license to the regulator, NBFIRA.
“Following the various court actions and massive adverse publicity campaign waged against CMB and its directors by NBFIRA and its collusive partners being Bona Life and BPOPF, CMB is no longer able to operate as an asset manager,” wrote Rapula Okaile to NBFIRA CEO, Oaitse Ramasedi on 20thJuly 2018.
“We wish to point out again, as we have previously, that you erred in attempting to place CMB under statutory management when the appropriate course of action should have been to follow section 53 of the NBFIRA Act, which mirrored your publicly stated intentions and would not have had effect of shuttering CMB.
Clearly there was no purpose for the pursuance of statutory management in preference to section 53, other than to allow your collusive partners to utilize the statutory management mechanism to achieve their own objectives, which they failed to achieve when they pursued their own prior legal mechanisms,” wrote Okaile.
According to Okaile in his missive to Ramasedi; CMB is no longer in the business of asset manager, as all its contracts have been cancelled; it does not offer any advisory services; CMB has no clients; CMB, due to the damage to reputation and goodwill, has no hope of ever attracting any new clients, either as asset manager or advisor; the company has no revenue; its offices are closed and are now occupied by Fleming Asset Management; There is no hope of reviving the business due to deliberate infliction of reputational damage.
Okaile further writes: “Consequently, there is no further purpose in CMB being licenced by you and CMB therefore, in terms of this notice, returns its licence to you with immediate effect. Same being explicitly property of yourself is hereby returned to you.” However NBFIRA wrote back and refused to accept the licence saying there should be procedure and that they should be given notice.
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President Mokgweetsi Masisi says the issue of sustainable natural resources management has always been an important part of Botswana’s national development agenda.
Masisi was speaking this week on the occasion of a public lecture at Virginia Polytechnic, under theme, “Merging Conservation, Democracy and Sustainable Development in Botswana.”
Botswana, according to Masisi, holds the view that the environment is fragile and as such, must be managed and given the utmost protection to enable the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“It is necessary that we engage one another in the interchange of ideas, perspectives, visualizations of social futures, and considerations of possible strategies and courses of action for sustainable development,” said Masisi.
On the other hand, dialogue, in the form of rigorous democratic discourse among stakeholders presents another basis for reconfiguring how people act on their environments, with a view to conserving its resources that “we require to meet our socio-economic development needs on a sustainable basis,” Masisi told attendees at the public lecture.
He said government has a keen interest in understanding the epidemiology and ecology of diseases of both domestic and wild animals. “It is our national interest to forestall the dire consequences of animal diseases on our communities livelihoods.”
President Masisi hoped that both Botswana and Virginia could help each other in curbing contagious diseases of wildlife.
“We believe that Virginia Tech can reasonably share their experiences, research insights and advances in veterinary sciences and medicines, to help us build capacity for knowledge creation and improve efforts of managing and containing contagious diseases of wildlife. The ground is fertile for entering into such a mutually beneficial partnership.”
When explaining environmental issues further, Masisi said efforts of conservation and sustainable development might at times be hampered by the emergence and recurrence of diseases when pathogens mutate and take host of more than one species.
“Water pollution also kills aquatic life, such as fish, which is one of humanity’s much deserved sources of food. In this regard, One Health Approach imposes ecological responsibility upon all of us to care for the environment and the bio-diversity therein.”
He said the production and use of animal vaccines is an important space and tool for conservation, particularly to deal with trans-border animal diseases.
“In Botswana, our 43-year-old national premier pharmaceutical institution called Botswana Vaccine Institute has played its role well. Through its successful production of highly efficacious Foot and Mouth vaccines, the country is able to contain this disease as well as supply vaccines to other countries in the sub-region.:
He has however declared that there is need for more help, saying “We need more capacitation to deal with and contain other types of microbial that affect both animals and human health.”

President Mokgweetsi Masisi has expressed a strong worry over elephants killing people in Botswana. When speaking in Virginia this week, Masisi said it is unfortunate that Batswana have paid a price with their own blood through being attacked by elephants.
“Communities also suffer unimaginable economic losses yearly when their crops are eaten by the elephants. In spite of such incidents of human-elephant conflict, our people embrace living together with the animals. They fully understand wildlife conservation and its economic benefits in tourism.”
In 2018, Nthobogang Samokwase’s father was attacked by an elephant when travelling from the fields, where he stayed during the cropping season.
It was reported that the man couldn’t run because of his age. He was found trampled by the elephant and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.
In the same year, in Maun, a 57-year-old British woman was attacked by an elephant at Boro and died upon arrival at the hospital. The woman was with her Motswana partner, and were walking dogs in the evening.
Last month, a Durban woman named Carly Marshall survived an elephant attack while on holiday in the bush in Botswana. She was stabbed by one of the elephant’s tucks through the chest and was left with bruises. Marshall also suffered several fractured ribs from the ordeal.
President Masisi Botswana has the largest population of African elephants in the world, totaling more than 130 000. “This has been possible due to progressive conservation policies, partnerships with the communities, and investment in wildlife management programmes.”
In order to benefit further from wildlife, Masisi indicated that government has re-introduced controlled hunting in 2019 after a four-year pause. “The re-introduction of hunting was done in an open, transparent and democratic way, giving the communities an opportunity to air their views. The funds from the sale of hunting quota goes towards community development and elephant conservation.”
He stressed that for conservation to succeed, the local people must be involved and derive benefits from the natural resources within their localities.
“There must be open and transparent consultations which involve all sectors of the society. It is against this backdrop that as a country, we lead the continent on merging conservation, democracy and sustainable development.”
Masisi stated that Botswana is open to collaborative opportunities, “particularly with identifiable partners such as Virginia Tech, in other essential areas such as conservation, and the study of the interplay among the ecology of diseases of wild animals and plants, and their effects on human health and socio-economic development.”

Minister for State President Kabo Morwaeng says government will continue to make resources available in terms of financial allocations and human capital to ensure that Botswana achieves the ideal of eradicating HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
Morwaeng was speaking this morning in Gaborone at the High-Level Advocacy event to accelerate HIV Prevention in Botswana. He said the National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAPHA), in partnership with UNAIDS, UN agencies, the Global Fund and PEPFAR, have started a process of developing transition readiness plan for sustainability of HIV prevention and treatment programmes.
“It is important for us, as a country that has had a fair share of donor support in the response to an epidemic such as HIV and AIDS, to look beyond the period when the level of assistance would have reduced, or ceased, thus calling for domestic financing for all areas which were on donor support.”
Morwaeng said this is important as the such a plan will guarantee that all the gains accrued from the response with donor support will be sustained until the end when “we reach the elimination of HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 20230,” he said.
“I commit to continue support efforts towards strengthened HIV prevention, accentuating HIV primary prevention and treatment as prevention towards Zero New Infections, Zero Stigma, Discrimination and Zero AIDS related death, to end AIDS in Botswana.”
He reiterated that government commits to tackle legislative, policy and programming challenges that act as barriers to the achievement of the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat.
In the financial year 2022/2023, a total of 119 Civil Society Organizations, including Faith Based Organizations, were contracted with an amount of P100 million to implement HIV and NCDs prevention activities throughout the country, and the money was drawn from the Consolidated Fund.
Through an upcoming HIV Prevention Symposium, technical stakeholders will use outcomes to develop the Botswana HIV Prevention Acceleration Road Map for 2023-2025.
Morwaeng stated that government will support and ensure that Botswana plays its part achieving the road map. He said there is need to put hands on the deck to ensure that Botswana sustains progress made so far in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
“There are tremendous achievements thus far to, reach and surpass the UNAIDS fast track targets of 95%- 95%- 95% by the year 2025. As reflected by the BAIS preliminary results of 2021, we now stand at 95- 98- 98 against the set targets.”
“These achievements challenge us to now shift our gears and strive to know who are the remaining 5% for those aware of their HIV status, 2% of enrolment on treatment by those aware of their status and 2% of viral suppression by those on treatment.”
Explaining this further, Morwaeng said shift in gears should extend to coming up with robust strategies of determining where these remaining people are as well as how they will be reached with the necessary services.
“These are just some of the many variables that are required to ensure that as a country, we are well positioned to reaching the last mile of our country’s response to the HIV and AIDS pandemic.”