05 Dec 2018

PEEPA portfolio manager Mr Letshego Moeng says privatisation can accelerate economic growth by stimulating entrepreneurship and investment.

Mr Moeng said this on December 3, during a kgotla meeting in Letlhakane to update the public on progress of privatisation.

He said privatisation could increase direct citizen participation in ownership of national assets, adding that other benefits were that the size of the public sector could be reduced and government could withdraw from commercial activities.

He said it would also relieve government of the administrative and financial burden, as well as promote competition, improve efficiency and increase productivity of enterprises.

Mr Moeng stated that plans were underway to privatise Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) as well as Air Botswana and establish a meat regulator.

Privatisation, he said, would be conducted for the benefit of all and not for the privileged few, stating that the process would be transparent and equitable to avoid perceptions of unfair dealing.

He said it could be full or partial transfer of assets and services from state to private sector, indicating that methods of privatisation were divestiture (could either be sale of shares, strategic equity partner and management or employee buy-out), outsourcing and leasing.

He said various modalities would be considered for different parastatal organisations to improve efficiencies, and where appropriate, a regulatory and supervisory authority would be created, stressing that measures would be taken to safeguard employee interests.

Mr Moeng said the government had decided to liberalise the meat market, which would mean ending the BMC monopoly in the exportation of meat, adding that areas that may be regulated included licensing of abattoirs, marketing and distribution agents.

He said standards and regulations would be enforced to protect farmers’ interests through tariff setting, among others.

Mr Moeng said the journey would involve transformation of BMC into a limited liability company under the Companies’ Act, development of a privatisation strategy by May 2019 and implementation of privatisation option approved by cabinet.

Further, he said government made a decision to privatise Air Botswana and review its business model with a view to making it profitable and sustainable, adding that possible areas for unbundling include ground-handling services, maintenance and corporatisation.

Meanwhile, Mr Tshepo Nfila also PEEPA portfolio manager, stated that through outsourcing government aims to develop a funding model as well as evaluation performance of parastatal organisations.

Mr Nfila stated that the objective was to develop a sustainable long term solution for addressing government’s residential and office accommodation as well as maintenance of existing buildings with a view to recommending a sustainable private sector participation and funding model.

With regard to fueling of government fleet, the intention, he said, was to develop an operating model that would enable fueling of government fleet by citizen operators without interfering with the smooth flow of business to effect in July 2019.ENDS