Parliament passes bill to reserve BTC shares to citizens

Lerato Maleke | Friday August 8, 2014 14:12

 

The amendment makes the BTC employee scheme exclusive to citizens only. The minister submitted the bill under a certificate of urgency because the listing of the BTC Limited in the Botswana Stock Exchange is due on August 22.

He said the bill therefore seeks to ensure the allotment of shares to citizen employees. The 2008 Act opened the allotment of shares to all employees, irrespective of their nationality.

The minister said allowing foreign employees of BTC to procure shares is contrary to the government’s intention to reserve shares to Botswana citizens only. To make the BTC shares exclusive to citizens, the cabinet reconsidered the allotment in 2012.

Cabinet then directed that out of 49% shares allocated to citizens, up to five percent should be given to citizen employees through an Employee Share Option Plan. “This therefore calls for the amendment of BTC (Transition) Act 2008 to indicate that the Employee Share Ownership Plan to be established will be exclusively for citizens,” he said. The minister said that the details of the Employee Share Ownership Plan are currently being finalised.

Legislator, Tawana Moremi said he is afraid the amendment will tamper with people’s rights, arguing that shareholders have a right to sell to whoever they want.