Following Pele Moleta’s abrupt resignation from Botswana Post as Chief Executive in March this year, the Board of Directors has announced Cornelius Ramatlhakwane as his replacement. The appointment of Ramatlhakwane, who is currently the Head of Business Development within BotswanaPost, was made public by the Board this past Friday.
Botswana Post Head of Strategy and Communications, Lebogang Bok confirmed Ramatlhakwane’s appointment with a short statement late Friday.
“On behalf of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of BotswanaPost and the board members, kindly be notified that Cornelius Ramatlhakwane has been appointed BotswanaPost Chief Executive, effective 1st October 2015,” she said.
It is not clear what will happen to the current acting Chief Executive, Setshedi Botlhole-Mmopi who was appointed shortly after the abrupt departure of Moleta who now works as Chief Operations Officer for Barclays Bank Botswana. Following the departure of Moleta, the board appointed Setshedi Botlhole-Mmopi as Acting Chief Executive. Moleta together with former Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Kutlwano Mswela resigned from Poso House under unclear circumstances in March this year.
During his tenure at Botswana Post, Moleta was given the name “The Post Man” which he accepted with pride and enthusiasm. Botswana Post recorded massive losses over the years, but that misfortune seemed to motivate him to relentlessly sell his vision of charting the organization into profitability, which he made sure drummed far louder than the post office’s hardships.
Before his departure, Moleta pinned the future of Botswana Post on technology and innovation. He introduced, among others Poso Cloud, which sought to bridge the digital divide with its offer of public Wi-Fi hotspots. He leveraged on the post office’s national footprint to forge easy access payment agreements with other organisations like cell phone network providers, power and water utilities as well as roads department. All these fell under the portfolio of Ramatlhakwane, who was then business Development Manager. It was perhaps his previous role, on which the future of BotswanaPost was underpinned, that set him as the best man to take the post office forward.