11 Feb 2018

Maun East Member of Parliament, Mr Kostantino Markus says it does not make business sense for government to continue injecting capital on the day to day operations of Botswana Meat Commission while the institution continues to be unprofitable.

Speaking during the ongoing 2018 budget debate, Mr Markus said it was on record that BMC only realised a net profit of about P332 million in 2015 primarily due to government injection of P600 million.

He added that the commission registered a net loss of over P229 million during the period under review in 2016.

The Maun East MP said BMC had for years proved to be insolvent, and that privatisation could be the only solution to its financial woes.

Mr Markus added that government needed to act swiftly to ensure that the privatisation of BMC was completed as soon as possible in order to relief government from diverting funds that could be used to develop the country into bailing out the forever cash trapped BMC.

He pleaded with Parliament to no longer approve any more funds channeled to BMC.  

He said the public was waiting with bated breath the outcome of the recent countrywide consultative tour by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security with farmers regarding the privatisation of BMC.

He urged government to consider officially declaring 2017/18 drought year as farmers were already fearing the worst due to shortage of rainfall.

Furthermore, Mr Markus pleaded with government to do away the Ipelegeng programme, and to divert funds used on the programme to support companies that came to setup manufacturing industries in Botswana.  

“The Ipelegeng programme is doing a great job in uplifting the livelihoods of Botswana. However, a lot of funds that are used in the programme could be invested in establishing permanent jobs that could benefit Batswana in the long run.

Annually  P700 000  is spent on  the programme which translates to P7 billion over the past decade. Such amount could rather be used to establish industries that could create employment for Batswana,” he said.

He said government also needed to do away with bottlenecks that impeded foreign investors to establish business in Botswana. 

Government, he said, needed to establish an investor friendly environment to lure investors to come and set up business in Botswana.

Bottlenecks such as the Environmental Impact Assessment study, he said, were some of the factors that contributed to investors shunning doing business in Botswana.

With regard to tourism investment, Mr Marcus said a lot was needed to be done in improving the tourism sector, particularly in Maun which was regarded as the country’s tourism hub.

He said Maun still lacked behind in basic amenities like water and road networks, but that it was the gateway to the Okavango Delta. Ends