This year marks the crystal jubilee of Barclays Bank Botswana’s pioneering localisation drive. Fifteen years ago the bank blazed a revolutionary trail by appointing Duncan Mlazie the first Motswana Managing Director in the country’s banking industry. It was a dramatic high point in the country’s citizen empowerment campaign. Fifteen years later, as the vanguard of localisation celebrates this milestone, there is however likely to be more gnashing of pearly whites, and savage cries than popping of champagne corks and scattering of confetti.
Today Barclays Bank Botswana leadership has been overrun by expatriates and the localisation programme is being rolled back. In short, if Barclays Bank Botswana epitomized the citizen empowerment spirit of 2000, now it epitomizes a resurgence of citizen disempowerment. What went wrong?
Two years ago, a citizen MD was forced to resign under a cloud. The bank could not find a suitable replacement in the country. South African Rienette van de Merwe came in as a stop gap MD while the bank was grooming a citizen heir presumptive. Van de Merwe however came brandishing a guillotine. She ranged through the banks senior management like a scalp ÔÇô taker. Among the heads she claimed were Peo Motshegare who was Consumer Director, Seseti Mogami who was Head of Corporate Banking and Boitumelo Komanyane who was Risk Director.
When she assembled her new leadership team for Barclays Bank Botswana, she delocalised almost all the eight executive management positions. She tapped her compatriot, Andr├® Potgitier to head the Department of Banking Business, a Zambian national Mumba Kalifungwa to head the Finance Department an American Jeffrey Davis to head the Risk Department a Zimbabwean Brighton Banda to head the Consumer Department and another Zimbabwean Racheal Mushaike was appointed Communications and Marketing Director. The revolving door spun one way: Citizens went out and expatriates came in. If van de Merwe intends to renew her contract with Barclays Bank Botswana, then the boardroom bloodbath should come as good news. She is nearing the end of her tour of duty in the country, however almost all top positions at the bank have been filled by expatriates with no possible citizen replacement in sight. The only citizens in the executive management are Kgotso Bannalotlhe who heads Corporate Investment Banking and Richard Malikongwa who is Director for Human Resource. Neither is considered ready for the top post.
The anti-climax of Barclays Banks Botswana’s pioneering localisation drive came last week with the dethroning of the banks heir presumptive, Pele Moleta who had been head hunted from Botswana Post to understudy van de Merwe.
Sources inside the bank claim that van de Merwe had set her course, not always in directions Moleta preferred. For example, he refused to sack a number bank executives who the bank wanted out. Among those that Moleta was instructed to sack but declined is Ediretse Ramahobo who has previously acted as Chief Operations Officer. Indications are that he had had trouble finding his way through a minefield of political and vested financial interests. He became a straw dog in a fight much larger than anything about himself. He found himself punching above his weight. On the opposite corner was the MD who is believed to have the support of the board chairman Rizwan Desai. Van de Merwe’s one-on-one relationship with the board chairman is opaque, a vital unknown in assessing Desai’s impact on events.
But officials who see them together often detect a strong sense of mutual confidence. The bank’s head of Marketing & Corporate Relations, Racheal Mushaike this week refused to respond to allegations that Desai has promised to lobby the board to renew van de Merwe’s contract and in return van de Merwe has also promised to lobby the Board to ensure that Desai’s stay at the bank as its Chairman is prolonged. Mushaike, however, confirmed that Moleta had left the employ of Barclays Bank.
Desai is a partner at Collins Newman and Company, a law firm whose span of influence extends far beyond its well-known interests in legal defence and advice. Over the years, the law firm has shaped its times as no local law firm has before. It has managed to approach the levers of power obliquely and can battle a hostile bureaucracy using intimate knowledge of its terrain. Desai’s partner at Collins Newman and Company, Parks Tafa is widely believed to be the go-to-man for anyone who wants the president’s ear. His influence in the Khama administration is widely presumed but hard to illustrate. Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) insiders however insist that Tafa’s sharp mind and prodigious appetite for work has assured him of a ready patron in President Lt gen Ian Khama for edge-of-the-envelope views on executive supremacy that previous presidents did not assert. While President Khama occupies himself with broad policy issues, Tafa is believed to inhabit an operational world in which means are matched with ends and some of the most important choices are made. It is believed that before the President makes a decision that counts, the final words of counsel nearly always come from Tafa. That what Tafa prefers, Khama approves, a mandate that gives him access to “every table and every meeting,” making his voice heard in “whatever area the president’s legal advisor feels he wants to be active in.
Most clients believe that the law firm’s gravitas can empower them to fight above their rank, which makes Collins Newman and Company a valuable ally for any corporation. In fact, earlier this year, Tafa was Chairman of the board at Stanbic Bank while Desai still is board chairman at Barclays bank and their law firm offers legal advice to the Central Bank.
Quizzed on whether the relationship did not create an opportunity for a conflict of interest, Bank of Botswana this week toldSunday Standard that, “The Bank of Botswana has no retainer arrangement with any law firm in the country; legal advice is obtained on a case-by-case basis. Needless to add, the Bank would not seek legal opinion from a law firm on a matter which is potentially conflictive.”
Collins Newman and Company’s influence, however, seemed to have been lost on Moleta who is reported to have questioned the ethical propriety of having Desai as Board Chairman while he was also senior partner at Collins Newman and Company which provides legal services to the bank.
Moleta’s fears were predicated on one incident when Barclays Bank Botswana responded to a tender floated by Botswana government to provide advisory services for Independent Power Supplies.
In the last minute it was discovered that Barclays Bank could not use Chairman Desai as a signatory in its bid because his law firm had partnered with Stanbic Bank, through its parent company, the giant Standard Bank of South Africa.
An effort was made to replace Desai with another board member, Lawrence Maika. But it was too late as the Public Procurement and Assets Disposal Board (PPADB) closed Barclays out saying they did not meet the deadline.
In the end, only Standard Bank of South Africa and First National Bank, through the Rand Merchant Bank, submitted their bids in the multi-million Pula independent power supply tenders.
“It was a big issue in the bank. The ABSA wanted to be Government advisor, but our Chairman was involved with another bank. The Group simply did not understand how such a glaring governance issue could in the first place have been allowed to happen when we had our Chairman effectively playing for another team,” said the source.
But by that time Moleta’s fate was sealed. A decision to drop him was announced when the Managing Director and the Chairman arrived from Zambia where the duo had attended the Chairmen’s conference.
Approached for comments, Desai sent an SMS text message stating: “Afternoon. I am still in my meeting, but have checked the bank’s protocols in terms of board members communicating with the media in the meantime. In terms of those protocols, all queries require to be addressed to the bank’s head of marketing and customer relations Racheal Mushaike, in the first instance, so your being directed to me must be an error. Any direct communication by me must with you which is not sanctioned by the bank would result in a breach by me of those protocols. I would therefore suggest that you submit your queries to Racheal and she can then arrange for a response as appropriate. I do hope and expect that any story that is run by you will be fair, factual and balanced without resorting to speculation.”
Mushaike on the other hand stated that, “regrettably we do not comment on the terms, conditions or circumstances of our employees. Further, we cannot comment on speculation. Suffice to say that Barclays remains committed to being an employer of choice in the market.”
To hear Bank of Botswana officials say it, the central bank is committed to ensuring that senior positions in local commercial banks are localised. The regulator of local commercial banks, however, seem to have looked the other way as Barclays Bank purged citizen executive managers and replaced them with expatriates. In response to a Sunday Standardquestionnaire, the bank stated that, “The Bank of Botswana is not privy to appointment of any individual who “was due to take over as bank MD”. Indeed the Bank is on record imploring banks to localise senior management positions with requisitely qualified and competent persons. This is in order to have the right balance between citizens and equally qualified and experienced expatriate personnel. The fact of the matter is that the ultimate responsibility for appointment of staff lies with the leadership of banks, while the role of the Bank of Botswana is to ascertain that all appointees are fit and proper.”
