OCTOBER, A MONTH OF BAD LUCK FOR ARONE

The month of October is proving to be a bad month for former Minister of Basic Education and Skills Development, Bagalatia Arone.

Last year, Arone, who is also the former MP for Okavango, survived a near fatal car crash in October on the way back from his father’s funeral.

This year, the 43-year-old Arone is facing yet another challenge set to play out in public in the month of October.

On the 19th of October, 2021 Arone’s guest house in Shakawe village in the North West District will be sold by auction to the highest bidder after he allegedly failed to pay a loan from the Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA).

In a notice of sale in execution recently published by Deputy Sheriff, Phillip Maitseo, it is noted that the guest house will be sold as a result of the Francistown High Court order; “Be pleased to take notice that pursuant to a judgment by the above honourable court, the following property shall be sold by public auction by Deputy Sheriff, Phillip Maitseo, to the highest bidder.”

The property to be sold include a piece of land measuring one thousand five hundred and forty square meters and in it sits a guest house with ten rooms each - with shower and toilet, five detached rooms, laundry room, kitchen, a pit latrine and an incomplete slab of a guard house.

Arone got the lease of land on the 9th June, 2016, the same month he was seen locked in meetings with the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) leadership and later announced his defection from opposition Botswana Congress Party to join BDP.

Then, the country’s vice president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, was on a recruitment drive and accused of enticing new recruits with personal business deals so they could join BDP and become loyal to him once he succeeded to the presidency in 2018.

Nonetheless, Arone had always insisted that he never joined BDP for the money and that his application for the guest house was approved the previous year, 2015, before he jumped ship.

Arone was cited as second defendant on the matter before the high court with his company, Biger Investments (PTY) LTD, as the first defendant.

However, Arone could not be reached for comment as his mobile phone was off air and his brother, Geofrey Arone, who was the guest house manager, only responded, “I do not know the reason for auction, I only learnt about it from the media.”