Meat regulator will end BMC monopoly
Onalenna Kelebeile | Tuesday November 27, 2018 15:02
Speaking before the Selibe-Phikwe Town Council meeting last week, Joseph said the regulator would be established to facilitate open market so that private abattoirs may also access the international market. He told the full council that the regulator would also look into the licensing of abattoirs, marketing and distribution agents and enforce quality controls by setting standards and regulations for meat grading and animal inspection.
“The regulator would also enforce compliance with the international standards and market requirements as far as hygiene and sanitary requirements are concerned. The regulator would also ensure consumer protection and public education as well as enforce standards and regulations in relation to the protection of farmers’ interests through tariff setting among others,” he said.
He explained that government made a decision to privatise BMC in February this year and PEEPA has been tasked with leading the exercise as the custodian of the privatisation policy. He added that privatising the BMC would involve its transformation into a limited liability company under the Companies Act and developing a privatization strategy by May 2019. “The strategy would provide various options on how it could be privatized and recommend the optimal one. It would also involve the implementation of the privatisation option approved by the Cabinet,” he said.
On Air Botswana, he said government also made a decision to private the aviation entity to review its business model with a view to make it profitable and sustainable. He noted that possible areas to unbundle the aviation would include ground handling services and maintenance. “The privatization of Air Botswana would also involve its corporatization to convert it into a company under the Companies Act,” he added.
He said privatisation is necessary to withdraw government from commercial activities that no longer need to be undertaken by the public sector thus relieving government of the administrative and financial burdens. It also facilitates greater private sector participation in the economy and increase direct citizen participation in ownership of national assets. In this way the rate of economic growth by stimulating entrepreneurship and investment would be accelerated.
He told the civic leaders that privatisation is conducted for the benefit of all not for the privileged few and emphasised that the process would be transparent and equitable to avoid perceptions of unfair dealings. He further said that it would present opportunities for citizen owned businesses. “Different modalities would be considered by various parastatals to improve efficiencies and where appropriate regulatory and supervisory authority would be created where monopolies are expected. Measures would be undertaken to safeguard employee interests,” he said.
Joseph stated that PEEPA is also engaged in the rationalisation of parastatals to review their mandates and where such mandates are similar or duplicated they would find ways of rationalising them. PEEPA is also currently identifying tasks, functions and services that may be hived off to the private sector such as developing an operating model that would enable the fueling of government fleet by citizen operators without interfering with the smooth flow of government business. He said this will effect in July next year. “We would also conduct regular review of performance of parastatals.”
Councillors expressed the need for existing parastatals to communicate and involve each other instead of competing against each other to the detriment of Batswana who are supposed to be beneficiaries of the services that parastatals provide. They also said even councils must involve parastatals in their infrastructural development planning processes to avoid interference.
“Government must continue to privatise more and more of her services so that private companies can take over. It would enable government to have a stronger voice and monitoring and managing the private sector. Government must even benchmark from other countries where necessary. We are facing the economic dilemma after the mine closure because government was the sole shareholder in the company,” he added.