13 Oct 2016

President Lt Gen. Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama visited Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) in Lobatse on Wednesday (October 12) to get first hand information on status of the abattoir.

Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Mr Patrick Ralotsia, told President Khama that he would soon propose to Cabinet for BMC to be restructured.

He said the two fold proposal would intend to privatise the national abattoir as well as separate Lobatse abattoir from Maun and Francistown.

He said the separation was precipitated by the fact that the Lobatse abattoir, although doing well, had to support the other two that were running at a loss.

Mr Ralotsia said the Francistown abattoir had a target to slaughter 400 herds of cattle per day, but had never even managed half of the quota since inception. He cited that last week alone, the facility slaughtered 76 cattle

He stated that Maun abattoir was also struggling to make profits, saying the main undoing for the abattoir was perceptions emanating from the fact that it was situated in a Foot and Mouth (FMD) zone. 

As a result, he said the two facilities put a strain on the Lobatse facility to share profits. The two facilities, he further explained, had been operating at a loss but only being maintained for social reasons.

However, Mr Ralotsia said closure of the two limping facilities would only come as a last resort.

He, therefore, encouraged farmers to improve the number and quality of livestock they sold to the facilities to enable them to make profits.

For his part, BMC chief executive officer, Dr Akolang Tombale said he was happy that President Khama’s visit gave him an opportunity to get first hand information on the abattoir.

He said he was particularly thankful that President Khama had promised that government would from time to time engage BMC to see how best it could be assisted to help Batswana.

He also shared that they had a plan to consolidate all the green Zones production into the Lobatse abattoir. 

He said BMC was a cooperative for farmers in that profit was paid back to them. ENDS