18 Jul 2013

The Assistant Minister of Agriculture, Mr Oreeditse Molebatsi has accused former Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) chief executive officer, Dr David Falepau of embarrassing him.

Mr Molebatsi told the Parliamentary Select Committee on the enquiry of the BMC that Dr Falepau embarrassed him by lying to him that the Francistown abattoir would start slaughtering cattle from the Maun area, something that he knew not to be true. 

He said after he delivered the good news to the people of Maun, Dr Falepau changed everything, “something that embarrassed me a lot”.

Mr Molebatsi was responding to some questions from members of the committee who had wanted to know why Dr Falepau was fired by the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Christiaan De Graaff, 18 months in his new job.

He told the committee that he was one of the people who recommended that he be fired because he made him lie to Maun residents. “If I was the minister, I could have fired him instantly to send some signals to would-be chief executive officers”, Assistant Minister Molebatsi said.

Mr Molebatsi said he was forced to apologise to the angry people of Maun.  “How can a person of his caliber do that?  You were not there when the people of Maun grilled me over these lies”, he added.

He told the committee that another problem that cost Dr Falepau his job was that he did not account for the funds availed to him. He said at one stage, Dr Falepau requested for millions of Pula from government to turn around the fortunes of the ailing commission but that did not happen.

Mr Molebatsi also told the committee that he had a cordial relation with Minister De Graaff and that he had advised him on certain issues, some of which he had agreed upon.

He said one of the advices that Mr De Graaff accepted was that of appointing the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Micus Chimbombi to be a board member of the BMC.

However, he said one of his advices that he gave and was never accepted by the management team was that Mr Ian Thomas, a former BMC board member, be paid allowances when he opted to be a board chairperson without pay.

He said the main reason was that with the pay, the ministry would be able to control him adding that at some stage, he insisted that if he (Thomas) did not want the payment, he should accept it and donate it to any charitable organisation such as the Red Cross.

Mr Molebatsi also submitted that in his view, it was a mistake for Mr Thomas to have been appointed the chief executive officer when there were some Batswana who were qualifying for the post. He suggested that Mr Thomas should be called to come and account for certain things.

Mr Molebatsi also said he was aware that the BMC UK subsidiary holding, which was a marketing arm of the BMC, was closed due to high operational costs.

The assistant minister, who would return for further interrogation on July 29, also hinted that he wanted the Botswana College of Agriculture (BCA) to be turned to a fully-fledged university.

Meanwhile, Dr Falepau, who is now lecturing in one of the Australian Universities, would give his evidence through video conferencing this weekend at a venue to be established, chairperson of the committee and MP for Ngwaketse West, Mr Mephato Reatile confirmed this arrangement.  ENDS