Riverwalk land claimant back in court
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The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Councillor in the Central District village of Thabala, Kadimo Oremeng, popularly known for his three Million Pula Riverwalk Mall suit against the Government of Botswana and former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Lands and Housing, Elvidge Mhlauli is suing again over a land owned by Cash Bazaar Holdings which he says was was originally his.
Oremeng is suing a certain Patrick Sello Kaote, a resident of Francistown, who he says solely and secretly sold their jointly owned chunk of land in Gabane to Cash Bazaar Holdings after the two failed to sell it to Choppies following the Kweneng Land Board denying them change of land to multi residential use as was per Choppies’ demands.
The two in 2010, according to Oremeng entered into an oral agreement, where Kaote appointed Oremeng as his agent regarding the sale of Kaote’s plot. The agreement according to court papers was that Oremeng shall find a buyer for the land and in return be paid P150 000.00 as commission.
The potential buyer at the time was Mogoditshane Motors who was sourced by Oremeng. They had paid P1 400 000.00 as deposit towards the purchase of the plot. The money was paid back to Mogoditshane Motors when the land was sold back to Cash Bazaar Holdings.
“In 2011, the defendant (Kaote) wrote another letter to his then attorney in which he offered Oremeng P370 000.00 commission for the sale of the same plot, this time to Cacic Enterprises. The said buyer was sourced by Oremeng. The agreed purchase price here was One Million Ten Thousand Pula. The sale referred to above never materialsed as the Land Board did not aceed to the change of land use request from a ploughing field to commercial,” says Oremeng.
Following the denial, the two renewed the land ownership deal for the smooth and speedy sale of the plot, according to Oremeng. Oremeng now was to facilitate the change of land use by the land board and find a buyer.
“The parties now jointly have equal rights to the land and that the parties shall therefore equally share the proceeds of the sale of the land should it find a buyer,” the court papers reveal.
The Chief Executive Officer of Choppies, Ramachandran Otttoppatu then proposed to buy the three hectars land at a tune of P8.2 Million after meeting Oremeng. “The offer is valid subject to the condition that multi residential zoning of the property gets approved by the relevant authorities. Kindly confirm the acceptance of the offer at the earliest,” he said in a letter to both Kaote and Oremeng.
Choppies had already paid the two a deposit of P100 000.00 which was returned after the Land Board refused the change of land use to multi residential use. The land owners then took the matter to the land tribunal. While there, the parties engaged the land board for an out of court settlement beneficial to both parties. “The Land Board made it a condition that for the parties must withdraw the case with the land tribunal,a condition that was granted,” reads the court papers filed by the plaintiff.
“The Land Board then agreed to a settlement in terms of which Kaote was allocated 2 hectares within his field and 1 hectar elsewhere, 5.7 hectars then reverted to the Land Board.The Board further agreed to change the land use to commercial,” argues Oremeng in the court papers.
According to Oremeng it was after this success, that Kaote made a secret deal with Cash Bazaar Holdings to sell the land to them without his knowledge and consent. The plot was bought by Cash Bazaar Holdings in the sum of six million five hundred thousand Pula, a sum which was paid to Kaote and his legal representative, Yame Tshepo Kebabonye of Sadique Kebonang Attorneys believe to have been Ten Million Pula before the land agents took their part.
Oremeng and his lawyer argue that Kaote has breached his agreement by failing to pay Oremeng half the price of the purchase as agreed. “The plaintiff has duly perfomed all his obligations per the agreement and has tirelessly worked to get the change of land use of the said property and secure a buyer,” Oremeng’s lawyer, Kebabonye argues in the court papers.
Oremeng and his lawyer say they want the sum of P3 250 000.00 representing half of the purchase price of the sold land. He also wants interest at the rate of 10 percent per annum from the date of breach of full and final payment. The two will be banking on surrounding evidence to prove their case.
Kaote who is represented by Sekwenyane Legal Practice however denies ever making an agreement of that nature with Oremeng. He argues that Oremeng failed to facilitate change of land use of the plot and further failed to secure a buyer for the land.
Kaote and his lawyers further charge that Oremeng had promised a lot of people the land and had actually appropriated a lot of money from these various individuals, further saying they had to pay back the money to avoid frustration of any future sale of the land.
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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.