22 Oct 2015

The Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Vincent Seretse has appointed Dr Omphemetse Tshosa as the new chairperson of the Competition Commission. Dr Tshosa, whose term of office will run for five years, replaces high court judge, Dr Zein Kebonang. 

Dr Tshosa has lectured at the University of Botswana. He also served as a magistrate and a high court judge. 

He was also a member of the Southern Africa judge tribunal. 

Meanwhile, during the announcement of the new chairperson, the Competition Authority chief executive officer, Mr Thula Kaira delivered the annual report announcing a positive response fielded by interventions that added value to consumers, business and government through enforcement and advocacy. 

On enforcement, he said they have witnessed four new market participants. 

He cited the physiotherapy equipment, sugar supply, the cash in transit and alarm with response market and the electrical supply markets respectively. 

Furthermore, he said two bid rigging cases were investigated and referred to the commission. 

“Both cases coincidently affect government procurement and were tenders worth P117 million for sugar beans and P10 million for infant formula milk.” 

Mr Kaira explained that there were still some bottlenecks. He said cases involving panel beating cartels were withdrawn due to respondents who have not been served with notices of investigation while others failed because of procedural errors. 

“To address this, the authority engaged in retraining of stuff in investigations as well as streamlining the coordination of investigations,” said Mr Kaira. Ends