18 Apr 2018

The Minister of Agriculture Development and Food Security Mr Patrick Ralotsia has clarified issues surrounding the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) Francistown branch following rumours that it has shut down.

The minister said  contrary to rumours circulating among Batswana the commission had not yet shut down even though it was under performing.

Speaking at a special full council session in Francistown last week, Mr Ralotsia explained that though the Francistown plant was a state of the art abattoir that met the European Union (EU) standards, it did not perform efficiently and economically to keep it running compared to the Lobatse BMC. 

This, he said was due to among others, failure by farmers to bring enough cattle to be slaughtered at the abattoir  and delay  in processing payments to farmers.

Mr Ralotsia further said that BMC in Lobatse had on many occasion had to step in to help pay farmers in the Francistown zone as the Francistown branch could not make enough income to sustain itself.

He further explained that BMC Francistown was expected to slaughter at least 380 cattle a day and 800 cattle a week but since 2013, the abattoir had never reached at least half of its expected capacity on any given day.

“There are instances where the Francistown branch has slaughtered zero cattle a day as well as zero cattle being slaughtered in a week. Francistown BMC has been draining Lobatse BMC because facilities have been directed to a non-performer, ” he said

 Mr  Ralotsia further commented that as the ministry, they had two options in addressing the situation at Francistown BMC; to either downsize or close it completely, but he however informed councillors that it had not been closed but rather operational functions had ceased while employees still kept their jobs.

For his part, councilor for Itekeng ward Mr Lesego Kwambala advised that consultation and engagement of the leadership of Francistown should have been done as soon as the ministry realised that the Francistown BMC was underperforming in order to give them an opportunity to come up with solutions and suggestions on what measures to take to arrest the situation.

He further pleaded with the minister to give the city of Francistown a year and a half to turn around BMC Francistown by engaging farmers and encouraging them to bring cattle for slaughtering instead of having them travel as far as Lobatse to get slaughtered leaving a highly modernised plant in Francistown. 

In response to Mr Kwambala’s request, Minister Ralotsia said he would give the leadership of Francistown three years to turn BMC Francistown around. 

Councilor for Tshwaragano ward Mr Gaone Majere further emphasised the importance of consultation before decision making.  

Mr Majere further suggestedthat if it came to that decision, the government  should at least give the commission to farmers in the Francistown region to run it with the help of the leadership in the city.  ENDS