The Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) Managing Director, Maria Nthebolan, has been forced to go on compulsory leave following a long running tiff with the board.
The BDC Head of Public Relations, Gomolemo Zimona, told The Telegraph that Nthebolan had gone on special leave.
“I really would not want to go into detail on this matter as some of it borders on the personal,” said Zimona when quizzed to explain the meaning of special leave.
He, however, conceded that Ms Nthebolan‘s absence from office, now close to a week, was not voluntary.
Zimona said the Board Chairman, Blackie Marole, was better placed to answer the questions.
One of the two General Managers, Sametsi Ditshupo, has left the corporation after her contract came to an end last week and was not renewed.
Following Nthebolan’s forced leave, Batlang Mmualefhe was appointed to act as Managing Director at least for the time that the other remaining General Manager, James Kamyuka, was away on leave.
Kamyuka, it must be said, went on personal leave and on a matter that has nothing to do with Nthebolan’s circumstances.
Earlier this year, the BDC board gave Nthebolan and three of her other executive officers an ultimatum to resign or be sacked. The board gave the quartet a mandatory leave of absence to allow them space to think whether they wanted to resign or opt for disciplinary action, which carried the risks of being sacked.
Nthebolan and her executives, who it is believed enjoyed cabinet protection, however, called the board’s bluff, and it emerged that the board did not have the power to back its ultimatum.
When the mandatory leave of absence expired, the four BDC executives returned to work, putting the board on the spot. Under the BDC rules, the Board cannot sack the Managing Director. Rather they can only make recommendations to the Minister of Finance, who has the final say.
The current Minister of Finance, Kenneth Matambo, is himself an immediate past Managing Director of BDC.
The deteriorating state of affairs at BDC has recently attracted cabinet attention, with the Board being summoned to the Office of the President to brief President Ian Khama.
With cabinet divided over the matter, The Telegraph can confirm that, led by Blackie Marole, recently got the requisite backing from the highest office to do what they felt was right to give BDC a chance of a new start.
Nthebolan and her executives have been in the board’s line of fire since it emerged that the BDC broke all the rules in the book and ignored informed advice not to go into partnership with Shanghai Fengyue Glass Company for the glass manufacturing plant in Palapye.
The BDC quartet, however, ranged through the controversy like moving targets, outlasting half a dozen board members who were baying for their blood.
The first board members to go were Nightingale Kwele, Thuso Dikgaka and Odirile Merafhe who were leading the campaign for disciplinary action against the BDC executive. The trio was kicked out of the board last November, a day before the board was to institute formal disciplinary hearings against Nthebolan and other senior BDC executives.
