Khama in campsites controversy
Innocent Selatlhwa | Friday August 18, 2017 18:00
Sources in the DWNP claim that Sean Sebele of Inter Tourism Group was un-procedurally granted a lease to run the campsites, which were previously run by the department, without a tender. “The company was given the campsites without any tendering, no formal writing. It was a directive from the ministry to give Sebele the campsites,” a source said.
Sebele, who in 2015 stood for the BDP central committee elections as an additional member is said to have ambitions of challenging MP Samson Moyo Guma in Tati East constituency. Guma and Khama are said to be not in good terms.
The sources in the department revealed that the campsites are being leased to Sebele under the pretext that he will develop them. “They are prime areas preferred by a lot of tourists. It has been about eight months, but nothing has been done. His safari company is housed at the wildlife offices, they use all facilities there including vehicles for campsites cleaning and phones as well as accommodation,” the source added. Mmegi has it on good authority that three of the company’s employees stay in government houses that are also maintained by the taxpayer.
It has also emerged that people are unhappy with fees charged by Inter Tourism Group for the campsite. While other campsites have a standard fee of P30, the company has hiked prices and the prices differ based on origin of the tourists. According to a fees sheet seen by this publication, camping fees for 2017/18 for citizen adults is now P75, P150 for adult residents, P180 for SADC citizens and US$35 (P350) for internationals.
There are a total of four campsites in Kgalagadi. The other two tour campsites and a wilderness trail are run by the DWNP. Tour charges are P30 for all visitors while the wilderness trail charges P200 for both locals and internationals. Sebele would not field any questions from Mmegi referring all the questions to the ministry. “You cannot ask me about things that are owned by the government regardless of whether I am running them or not. I can only respond to enquiries about my company,” Sebele said.
Contacted for a comment, Khama distanced himself from Sebele. He also refuted claims that Sebele was his close friend. “We have been having problems with people operating our campsites as they have been failing to bring them to desirable standards. With the mentioned campsites which are very far, the deputy permanent secretary’s office came with this company stating that they are well-resourced to maintain and improve the campsites and we decided to try their model on a trial basis,” he said. Khama said they had issued tenders before and people did not show interest in the campsites as they are far hence resorting to a different approach.
Khama said he was aware that like many operators, Inter Tourism Group was using Wildlife offices. “I gave them a deadline to construct office. They cannot just use our offices for free. They should at least pay, but then a lot of our operators are not serious and we have a lot of dilapidated campsites around the country. We do not have the resources to improve these and we were hoping they help us so we can cash in unlike it has been happening currently. For example at the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park tourists do their drives in Botswana and spend nights in South African side,” he said. Khama said they are looking to do more of the same if the trial gives them satisfactory results.
The minister however said he was not aware of the progress made by Inter Tourism Group in terms of their agreement as they report to the deputy permanent secretary’s office. At the time of going to press, a questionnaire sent to DWNP had not been responded to as the director was said to be out of town.