BOCONGO Executive Director jumps ship
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Botswana Council of Non-Governmental Organisations’ (BOCONGO) Executive Director, Bagaisi Mabilo this week quit her plum post at the organisation.
The decision to dump BOCONGO comes in the wake of a board proposal of a transformation to change the organisation’s name, constitution, mission, and mission as well as objective statements of the organisation.
It is understood that some organisation members and staff are against the transformation as they believe they were not satisfactorily consulted while on the other hand the board chairman, Oscar Motsumi, insists that they were consulted from inception of the proposed concept.
This has led to an almost irreparable relationship between the current board and the Secretariat as well as some member organisations of BOCONGO. Amid the mayhem Mabilo was suspended a fortnight ago for extending contracts of staff members against the board’s will and resolution.
WeekendPost has established that Mabilo’s current contract was to expire on the 31st March 2017 but she opted to leave before then due to the turmoil currently engulfing the umbrella organisation.
Initially she had desired to complete her contract having executed the 2015/16 financial audit and having prepared for the October 27th 2016 scheduled Annual General Meeting (AGM).
“Sadly with the recent turn of events, I have to make a painful but necessary decision to tender my resignation prior to the end of my contract,” Mabilo said in her resignation letter this week.
According to Mabilo, this will also protect her professional integrity and allow for any investigations to be carried out, and at the same token she stressed that she will always avail herself should there be anything she needs to answer.
In earnest, the outgoing Executive Director, pointed out that what motivates her resignation emanates from the July 2015 letter, which she wrote to the board stating concerns relating to the “abuse of authority by the board Chairman”.
She highlighted that there was harassment, interference in management matters which has never been addressed resulting in escalation of matters and deterioration of the working relationship.
“I have repeatedly been set up to fail in executing my mandate as the Executive Director, first by forcing me to dismiss staff, and assigning me tasks I cannot singlehandedly manage, and deliberately not given sufficient time to implement my mandate and report to the board as I should quarterly. These issues were discussed at length in my submission at the April 29th 2016 board meeting,” Mabilo asserted in her resignation letter.
She alluded to that fact that although there was a BOCONGO Governance Manual which is a policy of the organisation since 2013, and while the current board was orientated on it in 2014, and subsequently in 2016 for new members, they have disregarded it.
“The board has not complied with its policies in particular, with regards to matters of the making decisions as a collective board, restricting itself to governance functions. Prioritisation of some board member functions have not risen above management and operational directives, a serious hindrance and breach to the governance organisational development achieved over the years I have worked with BOCONGO.”
This, she said has resulted in deteriorating staff morale, violation of employee rights and poor governance of the organisation.
She further explained that she “felt victimised and threatened by the Board Chairman Mr. Motsumi, after having provided details for his lack of full declaration of conflict of interest in a matter where the chairman wanted to use his influence in a tender committee to appoint a preferred acquaintance whom he had instructed me to work with at tender conceptualisation.”
According to Mabilo, the tender committee and the board has been provided with information on the issue and this resulted in a meeting amongst the tender committee members where she learnt that the tender was immediately cancelled.
Immediately after alerting the board of the issue, she continued to point out that she then received a threatening mail from the chairman, who then organised a closed door board session whose quorum was questionable, and eventually a suspension and disciplinary hearing.
“My concern has always been that every time these closed sessions convene, there is no documentation of the legality of that meeting to make decisions that are binding to the organisation especially that issues of quorum and full participation of board members is always minimal and in most cases never form a quorum. Such actions continue to perpetuate non conducive and hostile conditions of service for me where decisions change willy-nilly.”
She said a methodical pursuit to dismiss her through a process that defeats and obstruct natural justice was deployed through the leadership of the board chairman and participation of the board. She mentioned that she had to endure a lack of procedural, unfair and intimidating disciplinary hearing where a lawyer instead of a labour practitioner services were procured on a labour matter.
“In my opinion this process is flawed as it is not clear what the terms of reference for the lawyers were, as I was never furnished with these, and the outcome of the hearing evidently did not consider evidence that I had provided and was biased to favour the chairperson.”
Mabilo also stated that she believes the desire to implement the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) seminar had ulterior moves, and therefore she unknowingly became a hindrance to achieving plans of “some comradeship members of the board” as they refer to themselves, who would stand to benefit from the seminar.
During the disciplinary hearing, Mabilo was charged with failure to organise the seminar despite the board having instructed her to do so.
With all the developments, she explained that “at the end of the day this is done at the expense of membership who has not approved the actual strategy that is sought to be implemented, proposing significant organisational and structural changes, for example, constitution and membership and secretariat structure.”
“Therefore, I find myself caught up in between implementing board instruction that go against membership authorisation,” she highlighted.
According to Mabilo, the current relationship between her and the chairman as well as the board is “irreparable” and therefore she concluded that “I would like to serve a month notice and close out my contract with BOCONGO.”
BOCONGO Chairman, Oscar Motsumi, declined to comment on the matter and only stated that, “Like I have said before in your last instalment, the Employer/Employee issues are private and confidential and cannot be discussed with third parties.”
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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.”