Brink pushes the BMC styled business model
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Derek Brink’s Senn foods is set to expand significantly encroaching into some of Botswana Meat Commission’s (BMC) safe zones such as cannery, creating hundreds of jobs in the process. Although the BMC monopoly denies Senn Foods an opportunity to export beef, the 35 year old business seeks to expand into cannery and biltong production for open markets.
According to the Botswana Trade and Investment Centre (BTIC) website, Senn Floods is explained as a privately owned domestic company that began its operations in 1982. The company currently has 480 employees. The company is into wholesome foods and their products are processed meat and beef. With the current expansion, Senn Foods is expected to hire an extra 200 to bolster the work force and has recruited some experienced former BMC employees for its cannery division. BMC recently retrenched and Senn Foods pounced.
This publication gathers that with the erection of a new bigger factory, Senn Foods which currently exports processed meat only, is on a mission to ready itself for the possible liberalisation of the beef market. Parliament has been procrastinating over the BMC monopoly Bill for the past five years. The bill is currently under deferred status. It seeks to abolish the BMC monopoly in the exportation of live cattle and beef.
The law was last discussed in Parliament when Christian De Graaf was still minister of Agriculture.
Because of the BMC monopoly, Senn Foods is not allowed to export beef. In the past they have explained that they are not exporting chicken because local prices are very hire. A senior employee at Senn Foods indicated that the company’s expansion plans are moving at a very fast pace in anticipation of a liberalised beef market, which could potentially triple the company’s earnings.
WeekendPost has further established that Senn Foods has potential customers inquiring from as far as Hong Kong, China and other Asian countries on the possibility of importing beef from Botswana. The SADC region, especially Angola and the DRC are also interested. The main impediment remains licencing because BMC is protected from competition. However, what frustrates businesspeople like Brink and others is the fact that BMC seems to shun other markets and is only interested in exporting to the European Union. Attempts by Senn Foods to apply for licences to export meat other than beef are said to have been turned down on a number of occasions.
Senn Foods already operates an abattoir which has also been revamped and increased in size. The abattoir slaughters cattle, goats, sheep, game and a host of other animals for the local market.
The considered expansion, it is said, also took into consideration the possible liberalisation of the beef market and possibly other meat for export.
SENN FOODS THE EMPIRE
Derek Brink, as part of the plans to spread Senn Foods in Africa, sold 49 percent in Botswana’s biggest cold chain distribution firm, Senn Foods Logistics, for R79.9 million ($7,7m) to RCL Foods in 2014.
RCL Foods also used the acquisition in keeping with its plans to grow its presence in Africa, which is projected to experience unprecedented economic growth in the next decade.
“(Through this acquisition RCL and Vector will) offer world class logistics and sales solutions to existing and future partners in these countries,” RCL said in a statement.
Through these partnerships, Senn Foods intends to ease transportation of its goods through Africa now and in future. “Senn Foods has a lot of potential, it could employ more people, if the beef market is liberalised,” quizzed one of the company executives.
Senn Foods Logistics is involved in the distribution of dry, frozen and chilled foodstuffs. The firm currently represents almost all of Vector’s principals in Botswana, which includes Rainbow, McCain, I&J, Fry’s and QSR customers, Chicken Licken, Nando’s, Spur and Wimpy.
Senn Foods has in the past also acquired 100% issued share capital in Seafood Wholesale Botswana and in exchange, Seafood Wholesale Botswana getting 43% of issued share capital in Senn Foods. Seafood Wholesale is a distributor of chilled and frozen products including Senn Foods processed meats and dry goods.
THROW BACK – THE MONOPOLY DEBATE
Those who support the liberalisation of the beef market are of the view that if the BMC monopoly ceases, farmers would be able to sell as individuals or syndicates to whoever they choose. At the moment they are confined to selling to the BMC because of the monopolistic BMC Act. Farmers are interested in the Angola and Zimbabwe markets because they believe the BMC has neglected those.
The anti-BMC rally is also of the view that the EU sometimes makes it difficult for Botswana to sell her beef because of stringent standards. They stress that there need to address quality first and further note that if the government were to open up the beef market, it would be a free for all. They point out that only commercial farmers would benefit from the new arrangement. He argued that Batswana farmers, who do not have ranches, would be unable to develop their breed. But those against liberalisation are of the view that before Botswana opens up the market there is need to develop the local breed first.
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Local tennis team upbeat ahead of Billie Jean King cup
With almost two weeks until the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup, which will be staged in Kenya from June 12-17, 2023, the Botswana Tennis Association (BTA) ladies’ team coach, Ernest Seleke, is optimistic about reaching greater heights.
Billie Jean King Cup, or the BJK Cup, is a premier international team competition in women’s tennis, launched as the Federation Cup to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The BJK Cup is the world’s largest annual women’s international team sports competition in terms of the number of nations that compete.
The finals will feature 12 teams (Botswana, Burundi, Ghana, Kenya, Seychelles, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Tunisia, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, and the Democratic Republic of Congo) competing in the four round-robin groups of three. The four group winners will qualify for the semifinals, and the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup will be crowned after the completion of the knockout phase.
Closer to home, the BW Tennis team is comprised of Thato Madikwe, Leungo Monnayoo, Chelsea Chakanyuka, and Kelebogile Monnayoo. However, according to Seleke, they have not assembled the team yet as some of the players are still engaged.
“At the moment, we are depending on the players and their respective coaches in terms of training. However, I will meet up with Botswana-based players in the coming week, while the United States of America (USA) based player Madikwe will probably meet us in Kenya. Furthermore, Ekua Youri and Naledi Raguin, who are based in Spain and France respectively, will not be joining us as they will be writing their examinations,” said Seleke.
Seleke further highlighted the significance of this competition and how competitive it is. “It is a massive platform for our players to showcase their talent in tennis, and it is very competitive as countries target to get promoted to the world categories where they get to face big nations such as Spain, France, USA, and Italy. Though we are going to this tournament as underdogs because it is our second time participating, I’m confident that the girls will put in a good showing and emerge with results despite the odds,” highlighted Seleke.
Quizzed about their debut performance at the BJK Cup, he said, “I think our performance was fair considering the fact that we were newbies. We came third in our group after losing to North Macedonia and South Africa. We went on to beat Uganda, then Kenya in the playoffs. Unfortunately, we couldn’t play Burundi due to heavy rainfall and settled for the position 9/10,” he said.
For her part, team representative Leungo Monnayoo said they are working hard as they aim to do well at the tourney. “The preparations for the tourney have long begun because we practice each and every day. We want to do well, hence we need to be motivated. Furthermore, I believe in my team as we have set ourselves a big target of coming home with the trophy,” she said.
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Pep Stores donates sanitary towels to Popagano JSS
The Guidance and Counseling unit at Popagano Junior Secondary School received a donation of 790 sanitary towels from Pep stores on Thursday.
When presenting the donation, Mareledi Thebeng, the Dinokaneng Area Manager, highlighted their belief in giving back to the community, as their existence depends on the communities they serve. Thebeng pointed out that research indicates one in four girls miss school every day due to the lack of basic necessities like sanitary towels. Therefore, as a company, they strive to assist in alleviating this situation. She expressed hope that this donation would help ensure uninterrupted learning for girls.
Upon receiving the donation on behalf of the students, Charity Sambire, the President of the Student Representative Council, expressed her gratitude. Sambire specifically thanked Pep Store for their generous gift, speaking on behalf of the students, especially the girl child.
She conveyed their sincere appreciation for Pep Store’s compassion and quoted the adage, “Blessed is the hand that gives.” Sambire expressed the students’ hope for Pep Stores’ prosperity, enabling them to continue supporting the students. As a gesture of gratitude, the students pledged to excel academically.
During her speech, Motlalepula Madome, the Senior Teacher in Guidance and Counseling, highlighted that many students at the school come from disadvantaged backgrounds where parents struggle to provide basic necessities. Consequently, some students miss school when they experience menstruation due to this lack.
Madome emphasized the significance of the donation in preventing the girl child from missing lessons and its potential to improve the school’s overall results. She expressed the school’s gratitude and expressed a desire for continued support from Pep Stores.
Popagano Junior Secondary School, situated in the Okavango District, holds the second position academically in the North West region. Despite its location, the school has been dedicated to achieving excellence since 2017
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Botswana misses out critical PAP committee meeting
The Pan African Parliament (PAP) committee on gender, family, youth and people with disability in its sitting considered, adopted and recommended to the plenary session the preliminary report on the framework for the model law on gender equality.
According to the last week’s media release from PAP which is sitting with its various committees until June 2nd, the committee is following up the PAP initiative to draw up a model law on gender equality to enable national governments to harmonize, modernize and standardize their legislations to address local needs is set to be discussed in Plenary.
However, what is concerning is the fact that Botswana which is a member state missed the deliberations. Kgosi Mosadi Seboko who sat in the committee representing Botswana has since been ejected by parliament and this is a huge blow for a nation that is still battling equity and gender balance.
“Although PAP has no legislative powers it makes model laws for member states to adopt. PAP also develops protocols to be ratified by countries. The input of countries at Committee state is extremely critical. It now means the voice of Botswana is missing the discussions leading up to development of protocols or model laws,” said one of Botswana’s representative at PAP Dr. Kesitegile Gobotswang who is attending the current session.
While Botswana is missing, the committee meeting took place on the sidelines of the Sixth PAP second ordinary Session being held under the African Union Theme of the Year for 2023, “The Year of AfCFTA: Accelerating the Implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area” in Midrand, South Africa and will run up to 2 June 2023. Chairperson of the Committee, Hon Mariam Dao-Gabala expressed satisfaction with preliminary processes undertaken so far towards the formulation of the Model Law,” a release from the PAP website reads.
“The law should be suitable to all countries whatever the predominant culture or religion is. The aim is to give an opportunity to women to participate in the economic, political and social development of the continent. Women are not well positioned and face a lot of obstacles. We are introducing the idea of equity in the Law because we cannot talk about equality without equity,” said Hon Mariam Dao-Gabala in the press statement.
The release has stated that among issues to be covered by the Model Law is the migratory movements of women. The Committee proffered that this has to be addressed at the continental level to ensure that migrant women enjoy all their rights and live with dignity in their destination country. The members of the Gender Committee undertook consultations to consolidate the contributions of the various stakeholders that will be the logical framework format for the Model Law.