17 Jun 2019

Government has taken a decision to liberalise the beef export market which will entail ending of Botswana Meat Commission monopoly in the exportation of beef.

The director of strategy and programmes at Public Enterprises Evaluation Privatisation Agency (PEEPA), Mr Ishmael Joseph recently informed the Letlhakane sub-council session .

Mr Joseph said a meat regulator had been established in order  that to facilitate the envisaged competitive open market for exportation of beef.

He noted that areas that might possibly fall under the ambit of the regulator included licensing of abattoirs, marketing and distribution agents.

Additionally, Mr Joseph said  the areas included enforcing compliance with international market requirements in areas such as hygiene and sanitary requirements.

He also noted  that the process of developing the regulatory framework had commenced and the outcome included draft bill providing the legal aspects of the authority, institutional framework, draft regulations for beef, pork, chicken, goat, mutton, game and other meat products.

The journey towards privatisation, he said, would involve  transformation of BMC into a liability company under the Companies Act such as corporatisation.

Mr Joseph said that a consultant had been engaged to develop the privatisation strategy for Botswana Meat Commission at Lobatse and Francistown.

He stated that the strategy would entail assessment of legal, financial, technical, market, operations, and valuation of BMC, assessment of strategy options and recommendation of a preferred privatisation option.

Concerning Maun abattoir,  he said it was being hived off BMC and retained by government to provide a market for cattle in Ngamiland, Okavango and Chobe.

Mr Joseph said the abattoir was also meant to guard against the risk of farmers smuggling their cattle into the green zone.

As part of consideration to make the concession attractive, he said, government was considering giving the concessionaire space within some quarantines.

That, he stated would enable the concessionaire to quarantine cattle so that meat could be sold outside the red zone at better prices.

Moreover, Mr Joseph said that it would also enable the concessionaire to stabilise  and relief farmers of the current requirements to take care of their animals at quarantines.

He further stated that a consultant had also been engaged to work with PEEPA on the concession transaction of Maun abattoir.

He noted that concession transaction entailed carrying out assessment of Maun abattoir, identifying areas for separation and provide separation implementation plan.

That, he said, included but was not limited to, the areas for legal separation and accounting separation covering asset identification among others.

With regards to  Air Botswana, Mr Joseph said there was a review of Air Botswana business model with the view to making it profitable and sustainable.

He said Air Botswana operated a passenger service, limited cargo service, ground-handling services as well as engineering and maintenance service.

Furthermore, he said  PEEPA was developing a structure that would see Air Botswana unbundled with a view to privatise its business units separately.He said  converting Air Botswana into a company under the Companies Act was ongoing.

In addition, Mr Joseph said that PEEPA was developing an operating model that would enable the fueling of government fleet by citizen operators, without interfering with smooth flow of government business.

Commenting on the presentation, Councillor Koketso Seloi of Orapa raised fears of poor salaries and late payment as a result of  privatisation.

Councillor Batoli Manyuni requested PEEPA to provide guidance on how Central District Council could be unbundled saying it had a large number of councilors.

Specially elected Councillor Baobonye Loeto said as a move to enhance service provision there was need to decentralise, and convert some of the sub-districts under CDC in to fully-fledged districts. ENDs