20 Nov 2018

Parliament has learnt that the general status of Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) operations across the country in its three abattoirs of Lobatse, Francistown and Maun depicts an ailing business.

Assistant Minister of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Mr Frans Van Der Westhuizen  attributed this to various factors among them their current bundle method where inefficiency in one operation affected the others, resulting in negative impact on the otherwise viable business if they operate on stand alone basis.

He said in recognition of the linkages, government had opted to unbundle and separate operations of the abattoirs with a view to make stability and sustenance of those who would do well on their own.

He further said in July this year, government converted P641 million into equity in essence cancelling this amount, which was accrued amount of loans owed by BMC to government.

“This was not only for Francistown abattoir, but for the BMC in its entirety,” he said.

He, however noted that government had reimbursed Francistown BMC an amount of P124 million due to losses experiences during the period when BMC was not selling meat to Europe due to outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in 2013.

Mr Van Der Westhuizen said the process of privatising BMC had begun and that at this stage, the Privatisation agency - Public Enterprises Evaluation and Privatisation Agency (PEEPA) had drafted the programme and activities for the privatisation exercise.

Parliament also learnt that Namibia and South Africa were involved in meat value chains, which were not necessarily similar to meat commissions similar to BMC.

Van Der Westhuizen said Botswana had already done interactions with the two countries on the methods of business, adding this was something continuous between the countries as the business dynamics change over time.

The assistant minister was answering Nata-Gweta MP, Mr Polson Majaga, who had asked for an update on the status of BMC operations in the country and the amount of money spent in bailing out the Francistown abattoir.

Mr Majaga also asked whether there was consideration by government to privatise BMC and when would government consider benchmarking with Namibia and South Africa.  ENDS