Merger of Parastatals

According to Sunday Standard, Cabinet has approved the merger of quite a number of parastatals whose mandates either overlap or are similar. This is a good step in trying to fix the bloated public service wage bill, but then it has negative effects on job losses. But truth be told, we have way too many state-owned enterprises that do one and the same thing!

Take the Local Enterprises Authority (LEA) and Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) as well as the National Development Bank (NDB) for example. These practically offer the same services and would be better off collapsed into one.

There are many others – the Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO) and the Special Economic Zones Authority SEZA) as well as the Botswana Trade Commission and the Selibe Phikwe Economic Development Unit (SPEDU) – all these have basically the same mandates and must be merged.

The only issue is how to handle the job losses that

will naturally follow! Obviously, two or three parastatals that will emerge from the restructuring of say, eight parastatals, cannot absorb the masses of the people that will be rendered redundant.

I remember how painful it was when the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) was merged with the Botswana Enterprises Development and Investment Agency (BEDIA) to create what we today know as the Botswana Investment and Trade Centre (BITC).

There are political as well as economic considerations that are taken into account when the position of chief executive officer of the resultant parastatal is decided. In the case of BITC, economic imperatives were the deciding factor.

You will remember that BEDIA has had big names such as Mmasekgoa MasireMwamba and Jacob Nkate leading it, but because the idea at President Festus Mogae’s time was to develop Botswana as a financial services hub of the region, it was decided that the then chief executive of IFSC, Alan Boswaen would lead the resultant organisation.

And later when the Botswana Innovation Hub (BIH) was created, Boswaen was moved there to pave the way for yet another brilliant mind, Letsebe Sejoe, whose contract would later, in a controversial turn of events, not be renewed.

The then minister was at the centre of that controversy as he was said to have coerced the BITC Board of Directors not to renew Sejoe’s contract. Anyways, Keletsositse Olebile has since not disappointed, pulling off money-spinning investment ventures during his tenure.

There is a good chance that when the parastatals under the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) are finally merged, Olebile will emerge among the Chief Executive Officers that will survive the axe!