Tshekedi Khama called to account
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Chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Statutory Bodies and Enterprises, Samson Guma, has summoned Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Tshekedi Khama, to appear before the committee next week Monday, to explain his involvement in the opening of the controversial Dubai office.
Khama is further expected to explain to the committee, the reason behind non-existence of Board of Directors at Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO), which could have rendered the organisation to operate outside the law.
This development comes in the wake of startling revelations by the BTO Chief Executive Officer Brian Dithebe, that the opening of Dubai office, which will cost government P17 million over a period of three years was done without proper market research and due diligence.
Dithebe revealed to the committee earlier this week that the office was opened because BTO “received an instruction from Ministry to open the office in Dubai.”
The committee was informed that Khama travelled to Dubai with BTO Marketing Executive, Julian Blackbeared, to sign a contract with a company called Gafa Media, that will promote Botswana as a destination. According to the agreement, a Motswana would be attached to Dubai office so that they understudy them as part and parcel of the contract.
Guma then stated that the signing of the contract by BTO and Gafa Media was a violation of Public Procurement Assets Disposal Board (PPADB) procedures, by directly signing the contract without any tendering or other selection means provided for by the PPADB Act.
Guma is not impressed with the fact that Khama could have acted illegally by directly giving instruction to staff of BTO to sign the opening of the office. According to the BTO Act, the board of directors shall be the governing body of Botswana Tourism Organisation.
However, Dithebe informed the committee that, presently, BTO is operating without Board of Directors because the minister has not replaced those whose terms had expired.
“We had six to seven Board members last year for which their terms expired, the last one was in November last year,” he revealed to the committee.
“We had six months before then, written to the Ministry notifying them that in November the last members would be having their term expiring; hoping that the process would have been kick-started well in advance for BTO Board to be fully constituted. Since then we have not had a Board until now,” Dithebe further revealed.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Elias Magosi, who was also summoned before the committee to explain the BTO organisation corroborated Dithebe’s testimony and said that it is indeed true that the organisation have been running without a board because the minister has not appointed one.
Magosi, who holds monthly and quarterly meetings with CEO of BTO, further revealed that they had advised the minister about the situation, but Khama has since informed him that he is still looking for “right people” to appoint to the board.
Magosi also distanced himself from association with the opening of Dubai office, telling the committee that he is not aware of any meeting, in his presence which discussed such matter. Magosi also expressed that he is not part of the instruction from the Ministry sent to BTO neither has he seen the letter sent to the organisation.
Guma expressed his concern that the fact that BTO is operating without a board, yet being a body corporate, is a deliberate move by minister Tshekedi to preserve the status quo. Guma said, there is no provision in the Act which countenance a situation where BTO will operate without Board of Directors.
The BTO Act states that, members of the Board other than the chairperson shall hold office for a period not exceeding three years, and shall be eligible for reappointment for a further term of three years. The Act further states that the chairperson of the board shall hold office for a period not exceeding five years and shall also be eligible for reappointment.
The Act also gives the minister the power to fill the vacancy should a board member resign before expiry of his term.
In the meantime, the committee is to establish if Khama is acting within the law by allowing the BTO to operate with the Board of Directors, whether his direct involvement in giving instructions to staff of BTO is not a violation of BTO Act, which recognise the Board as the only governing body of the Botswana Tourism Organisation.
Guma said there is no provision in the Act which allow for non-existence of the Board and what shall happen in that event.
Committee member, Pius Mokgware, who is also Member of Parliament for Gabane-Mmankgodi said the action of BTO in the past nine months without the Board could be illegal. Mokgware said though the Board is appointed and takes the instruction from the minister, the act specifically state that, the board shall make decisions of BTO affairs.
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DPP drops Kably threat to kill case
The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Chief Whip and Member of Parliament for Letlhakeng/Lephephe Liakat Kably has welcomed the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP)’s decision not to prosecute BDP councillor, Meshack Tshenyego who allegedly threatened to kill him. However, the legislator has warned that should anything happen to his life, the state and the courts will have to account.
In an interview with this publication, Kablay said he has heard that the DPP has declined to prosecute Tshenyego in a case in which he threatened to kill him adding that the reasons he received are that there was not enough evidence to prosecute. “I am fine and at peace with the decision not to prosecute over evidential deficits but I must warn that should anything happen to my life both the DPP and the Magistrate will have to account,” Kablay said.
Connectedly, Kably said he has made peace with Tshenyego, “we have made peace and he even called me where upon we agreed to work for the party and bury the hatchet”.
The DPP reportedly entered into a Nolle Prosequi in the matter, meaning that no action would be taken against the former Letlhakeng Sub-district council chairperson and currently councillor for Matshwabisi.
According to the charge sheet before the Court, councilor Tshenyego on July 8th, 2022 allegedly threatened MP Kably by indirectly uttering the following words to nominatedcouncilor Anderson Molebogi Mathibe, “Mosadi wa ga Liakat le ban aba gagwe ba tsile go lela, Mosadi wame le banake le bone ba tsile go lela. E tla re re mo meeting, ka re tsena meeting mmogo, ke tla mo tlolela a bo ke mmolaya.”
Loosely translated this means, Liakat’s wife and children are going to shed tears and my wife and kids will shed tears too. I will jump on him and kill him during a meeting.
Mathibe is said to have recorded the meeting and forwarded it to Kably who reported the matter to the police.
In a notice to the Magistrate Court to have the case against Tshenyego, acting director of Public Prosecutions, Wesson Manchwe cited the nolle prosequi by the director of public prosecution in terms of section 51 A (30) of the Constitution and section 10 of the criminal procedure and evidence act (CAP 08:02) laws of Botswana as reasons for dropping the charges.
A nolle prosequi is a formal notice of abandonment by a plaintiff or prosecutor of all or part of a suit or action.
“In pursuance of my powers under section 51 A (300 of the Constitution and section 10 of the criminal procedure and evidence act (CAP 08:02) laws of Botswana, I do hereby stop and discontinue criminal proceedings against the accused Meshack Tshenyego in the Kweneng Administrative District, CR.No.1077/07/2022 being the case of the State vs Tshenyego,” said Manchwe. The acting director had drafted the notice dropping the charges on 13th day of March 2023.
The case then resumed before the Molepolole Magistrate Solomon Setshedi on the 14th of March 2023. The Magistrate issued an order directing “that matters be withdrawn with prejudice to the State, accused is acquitted and discharged.”
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DPP seizes prosecution duties from Police
Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) has finally taken over prosecution from the Botswana Police Service (BPS). The police have been prosecuting for years, but the takeover means that they will now only focus on investigations and then hand over to the DPP for prosecution.
Talks of complete takeover began as far back as 2008, but for years it seemed implementation was sluggish. However, the Minister of Justice, Machana Shamukuni, revealed that the complete takeover is expected to be completed soon.
During a presentation to the Committee of Supply by Shamukuni this week, it was revealed that the project has been implemented in 22 police stations nationwide, including Maun, Selebi-Phikwe, Palapye, Francistown, and Kasane. He further stated that the project has been allocated P3,000,000 for the 2023/2024 financial year to facilitate the opening of more satellite offices for the DPP.
Shamukuni said the Lobatse station is scheduled for a complete takeover by the end of May 2023, while the Kasane DPP satellite office has been established and became operational as of February 1, 2023.
“As reported previously, preparations are at an advanced stage to open a satellite office in Tsabong to curtail expenses, as well as frequent long-distance trips to these areas, as it is currently serviced by the Lobatse DPP office,” Shamukuni said.
Shamukuni said that the takeover strategy is to enable a seamless and gradual takeover of prosecution from the BPS without overwhelming and overstretching the thin resources at its disposal.
According to Shamukuni, the implementation of the prosecution takeover project has increased the workload of the 211 prosecutors in the DPP establishment.
Furthermore, the Justice Minister said DPP statistics show that the DPP has a total of 11,903 cases and dockets as of January 2023. He indicated that this is a significant increase in the number of cases being handled by the DPP, considering that in November 2021, the DPP had just over 8,471 files.
“Out of the total case load, 8 382 are cases pending before various courts while 3521 are dockets received from law enforcement agencies of which 1 325 are awaiting service of summons while the rest are being assessed for suitability of prosecution or otherwise” said Shamukuni.
He further stated that The DPP has consistently maintained an 80% success rate in matters completed at court.
“As at the end of January 2023, the success rate stood at 82.3% against a target of 90% whilst the average performance in respect of turnaround time for conclusion of cases at court stood at 17.5 months against a target of 18 months,” he said.
BACKLOG OF CASES – LAND TRIBUNAL
Meanwhile, Minister Shamukuni has revealed that Gaborone land Tribunal is experiencing a backlog of cases. Before parliament this week, Shamukuni revealed that a total 230 appeals were completed for the period of April 2022- December 2022 and only 76.5% of them were completed within set time frame.
The minister said that the Gaborone division has experiencing a backlog of cases due to manpower constraints and he further indicated that presiding officers from other divisions have been brought in to expedite case disposal.
He further indicated that the land tribunal is a specialized court that has been empowered to resolve appeals arising from land boards. “It has been mandated to determine appeals from the decisions of Physical planning committees of Districts Councils” said Shamukuni.
Land Tribunal relocated to the Ministry of Justice from Ministry of Land and Water Affairs in November 2022.
“An amount of P37, 842,670 is requested to cover salaries, allowance and other operational expenses for the Department of the land Tribunal,” alluded Shamukuni
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BCP, AP stalemate in 7 constituencies
When the Botswana Congress Party (BCP), Alliance for Progressives, Botswana Labour Party (BLP), and conveners reconvene next week, the controversial issue of allocation of the seven constituencies will be the main topic of discussion, WeekendPost can reveal.
Not only that, but the additional four constituencies will also dominate the talks. The idea is to finally close the “constituency allocation phase,” which has proven to be the most difficult part of the ongoing negotiations.
Earlier this year, the two parties announced that the marathon talks would be concluded by February. Even at a media briefing last month, BCP Secretary General Goretetse Kekgonegile and Publicity Secretary Dr. Mpho Pheko were optimistic that the negotiations would be concluded before the end of February.
However, it is now mid-March and the talks have yet to be concluded. What could be the reasons for the delay? This is a question that both Kekgonegile and Pheko have not responded to, as they have ignored the reporters’ inquiries. However, a senior figure within the party has confided to this publication as to what is delaying the highly anticipated negotiations.
“We are reconvening next week to finalize constituency allocations, taking into account the additional four new ones plus the outstanding seven,” he explained. It later surfaced that Gaborone Central, Gaborone North, Mogoditshane, Tswapong North, Francistown West, Tati West, and Nata Gweta are all contested by both BCP and AP. This is because the other 50 constituencies were allocated by December of last year.
The three parties have failed to find common ground for the Bosele Ward by-elections. Are these constituencies not a deal breaker for the talks? “None of the constituencies is a deal breaker,” responded a very calm BCP official.
In Bosele Ward, AP has yielded to BCP, despite most of its members disapproving the decision. On the other hand, BLP has refused, and it will face off with BCP together with Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC).
The decision by BLP to face off with BCP has been labelled as a false start for the talks by political observers.