The great fall out

Members of Choppies’ eight member board this week suspended Ramachandran Ottapathu, the multi-millionaire credited with transforming the grocer from a family “spaza” in Lobatse to a regional giant employing more than 15,000 people.

Choppies has been in crisis since last September when the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) halted trading of its shares and requested clarification on the reasons for a delay in results for the year ended June 30, 2018. Choppies’ subsequent clarification triggered a 76.3% share price drop on the BSE, after the group said its new auditors were reassessing historical figures related to business acquisitions, value of inventory, property and a shareholder dispute in Zimbabwe.