SA retailers lobby Masisi to counter Seretse
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Property developers who own mall developments in Botswana are looking at taking the next step in their bid to lobby for a further softening of a Trade Act that compels South African chain stores to partner 51 percent with locals if they are to be granted trading licences.
Retail business is big in Botswana. It is worth close to P15 billion annually. The bulk of this money goes to South African retail giants.
Recently, the Minister of Trade, Industry, and Investment Vincent Seretse reiterated his stance that he was not going to back down and grant South African chain store owners a waiver to widen their footprint in the country by opening new outlets.
If Business Botswana president, Leta Mosienyane’s view that they are free to lobby anyone is anything to go by, then Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi appears to be the next office bearer that the retailers and property developers with the help of Business Botswana will visit to get him to soften Seretse’s clutched fist. Their argument appears to hinge mostly on employment creation, a task that Masisi is overseeing; they will also point to their role in helping diversify the economy; and the potential consequences of forcing this law through.
In an interview this week Mosienyane said majority of South African retailers are members of Business Botswana and they are advocating for sound businesses for all-including South African retailers and the locals. He also believes that 51% is too steep, “its worth billions and one would wonder if Batswana have access to finances to buy that investment.” He further said there are a lot of business models that can be used such as warehousing. He gave an example of South Africa where the government has underwritten the private sector (ABSA) to finance locals and pay them back through dividends.
However Masisi will also have to contend with the views scores of citizen business owners who are finding it difficult to compete with South African retailers and are also struggling to keep up with the rental demands of the top end malls. A number of local business people have written a co-signed letter supporting Seretse’s demands and Business Botswana is said to be not happy with them.
Mosienyane said South African retailers come as clusters and anchors bringing in a value chain which is worth billions. “When they come they push out Batswana and as Business Botswana we would be happy to see if Batswana can compete,” he said. He went on to applaud Minister Seretse for implementing this policy and added he (Seretse) should take another step further to finish off where he started. He said they have the right to lobby anyone including Vice President Mokgweetsi Masisi.
Seretse wants South African retailers to partner with Batswana and give them a controlling 51 percent stake in their businesses. Seretse’s crusade is hinged on the argument of citizen economic empowerment; something which he says has eluded this country for a long time. The law has been around for a while just that before Minister Seretse’s ascendance to the throne there has been a series of waivers granted in favour of South African retailers.
Minister Seretse and his assistant are not on the same page on the matter, report suggests. Indications are that Assistant Minister Sadique Kebonang is leaning towards a softened approach that will allow South Africa retailers to continue growing their footprints.
With a number of new malls coming up in places like Gaborone, Mahalapye, Palapye and Francistown, pressure is mounting on Seretse to relax the law. The intervention of Vice President Masisi could strike the balance in such a way that both local retailers, who are predominantly small in terms of balance sheet and giant South African retailers, are appeased. Some of the malls in Pilane and Gaborone had to delay their opening because of the anchor tenants are yet to be given their trading licences. For some in the retail business it is a catch 22 situation because jobs are at stake; while at the same time citizens are not penetrating the retail market because of South African retailers’ over domination of the sector. Mafia Soul founder, Molefe Nkwete observes that Minister is right with his intervention but it needs to be measured to cater for the interests of all parties involved.
Property developers like Time Projects, Turnstar, Nafprop and others are afraid that the law will have adverse effects on their business because the South African retailers form the bulk of their tenants. It is evident though that the South African retailers are not comfortable with a law that compels them to give controlling stake in their businesses away and they have enlisted property developers and Business Botswana to help argue their case against the Minister.
Business Botswana president, Leta Mosienyane who is not in support of Minister Seretse’s law said they are hopeful that a decision that favours property developers and all retailers will be reached. He said as Business Botswana they want laws that are progressive and favour both the local empowerment and foreign investment. He said the laws should not only be inward looking but should promote outside investment.
THE REAL PROBLEM LIES ELSEWHERE?
Mafia Soul’s recent altercation with the Game City mall developer is seen as the snow ball of the ongoing tiff between local retail businesses and property developers. Small retailers believe that overestimated rentals are used to push them out of prime spaces in favour of big retailers.
There is a general feeling among local retailers that South African retailers are favoured ahead of locals.
Mafia Soul has had to endure a period of lost business during the Game City mall renovations and the balance sheet thinned. At some stage they requested that their rent be reduced from P35 000 and the rent was cut by P3000. As the sales continued to drop to as low as 40 % the business owners wrote another letter demanding that the rent be waived for six months and they be compensated with P250 000 for lost business as a result of mall renovations.
But these were both rejected outright and they were told that their lease will be terminated. Following this communication they started experiences frequent electricity cuts occasioned by the property management, something which they challenged from a legal perspective on the grounds that mall developer was not a utility company.
The argument from the likes of Mafia Soul is that their businesses are not given the same treatment as the South African businesses, they point to incentives directed to South African retailers such as Tenant Installation support where a tenant could receive funding to start up and even pay salaries for six months.
They indicate that the reason why they support Minister Seretse’s law is because of the skewed practices that do not favour local retailers. “Let the playing ground be fair and we shall all be in harmony,” said Nkwete, whose business has paid rental accruing to P2.5 million in the last five years at Game City mall.
He confirmed that they currently owe close to P164 000 in rentals as a result of slow business at the mall because of the renovations. He said they have a pending case with Turnstar at the High Court and it is penned of December 6th this year.
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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.”