Wilderness gives tax haven company slice in its Botswana paradise
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Mountbatten Limited, a company incorporated in a commonly regarded tax haven jurisdiction of British Virgin Islands, is home and dry in buying Wilderness Holdings’ safari camp known as Xigera Camp in the tourism paradise of Okavango Delta, WeekendPost has established.
This publication understands that, Wilderness Holdings through its subsidiary Okavango Wilderness Safaris has offered to sell its offspring company, Great Explorations (Pty) Ltd, to Mountbatten― a deal which will see the tax haven based foreign corporation owning the Xigeria Camp which is based on Botswana soil. Technically, Xigera Lodge will move from the Botswana tax regime to a regarded tax haven, simply meaning the country will lose on tax revenues of a lodge build on its paradise’s soils to an offshore company in an apparent tax avoidance endeavor.
The country where Mountbatten is registered, the British Virgin Islands, is regarded by many investigators and tax experts as a hub for tax avoidance. The Caribbean Islands is regarded as a tax haven due to the absence of most major forms of taxation in the territory. This has led to the British Virgin Islands being included on most recognized lists of tax havens. The 2016 Panama Papers revealed that over 50 percent of shell companies were set up in the British Virgin Islands.
According to Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a tax haven is a jurisdiction that seeks to make itself attractive to businesses and business owners seeking more favourable tax treatments than those available in their country of origin or residence. A tax haven can also mean a country that offers foreign individuals and businesses little or no tax liability in a politically and economically static environment. Tax avoidance, despite it robbing countries of tax revenue, is not illegal, tax evasion is the one regarded as a crime.
One of the directors of Mountbatten is Michael Tollman who was director of Wilderness Safari Investment and Finance Pty Ltd thirteen years ago and has been Wilderness Holdings Limited deputy chairman since 2010, according to investigations by WeekendPost. Wilderness Safari Investment and Finance Pty Ltd is a subsidiary of a selling company, Wilderness Holdings Limited.
This means Tollman, being a board member of Wilderness may have been involved in the decision making of his own company, Mountbatten, buying Great Explorations. Wilderness is the grandparent company of Great Explorations which owns Xigera Camp. The CEO of Wilderness, Keith Vincent, is currently director of Great Explorations.
Mountbatten, the company on the verge of buying 100 % shares offered in Great Explorations, is a giant hospitality corporation which owns hotels and lodges in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Switzerland, Guernsey and the United States of America. Tollman is also a director of Mountbatten’s holding company The Travel Corporation. He is a member of the wealthy Tollman family which owns a huge worldwide property and hospitality empire. His cousin Brett is the CEO of The Travel Corporation.
Brett’s father Stanley was once a director of top English Premier League team Chelsea. The former Chelsea director’s reputation took a nosedive in 2008 after he pleaded guilty to one count of tax fraud and agreed to pay more than $105 million to the U.S. government in back taxes and various fraud penalties.
Speaking on behalf of Mountbatten because Tollman was abroad and requested her to respond to our questions, Bonnie Jennings told this publication that it remains an anticipation that Mountbatten Limited will acquire the shares in Great xplorations. However Jennings did not comment on Mountbatten being registered in the British Virgin Islands or whether she understands the nature of a business being taken from a certain tax regime to an offshore investment or a tax haven.
Responding via email from South Africa, Jennings said there can never be a case of tax avoidance against Botswana by Great Exploration or Xigera Lodge. She said: “Great Explorations (Pty) Ltd will continue to be based in Botswana and will operate in exactly the same manner as it has before and shall continue to pay tax in accordance with the laws of Botswana, as it has done to date,” said Jennings.
Wilderness Commercial Director and Chief Sustainability Officer Derek De La Harpe confirmed that they have sold Xigera camp to Mountbatten. He also confirmed that Mountbatten director sits on the board of Wilderness. He however did not want to comment on the issue of Mountbatten being incorporated in a regarded tax haven but forwarded our inquiry to the Caribbean islands based entity.
Competition Authority investigating the merger
The Mountbatten acquisition of Great Explorations has also caught the eye of local antitrust body, Competition Authority (CA). Recently the CA received a merger notification for the proposed acquisition of 100% of the issued share capital in Great Explorations owned by Okavango Wilderness Safaris by Mountbatten Limited.
As a result, the Authority further seeks any person or a third party not an interested party to voluntarily submit information about the proposed merger according to section 57(3), of the Competition Act. Also, any stakeholder for or against the acquisition may send views to the Authority within 10 days from the notice, according to the Authority.
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ENVIRONMENT ISSUES: Masisi asks Virginia for help
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.”
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Masisi saddened by deaths of elephant attacks
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.”
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Gov’t commit to injecting more funds in fighting HIV
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.”