The troubled Botswana Tourism Organization (BTO)’s board of directors has again submitted the name of their preferred candidate for Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
It remains unclear if the Board will prevail over the Minister of Tourism Philda Kereng and cabinet after several unsuccessful attempts spanning the past two years.
Appointing a substantive CEO has proven to be a mission impossible that has seen several BTO boards of directors failing to get their preferred name over the line.
The current, and the immediate former board have both been at loggerheads with the Minister over a preferred candidate following the 2021 departure of the last substantive boss Myra Sekgororoane.
The BTO top post has been re-advertised a couple of times over the past two years. Another preferred candidate for the post, the late First National Bank Botswana (FNBB) Chief Economist Moatlhodi Sebabole was rejected by Office of the President before his passing in late 2021.
The Minister subsequently dissolved the BTO Board of Directors which recommended Sebabole. He had applied for the BTO top post, gone through the interview processes, and emerged the front runner. Since then attempts to appoint a substantive CEO have been characterized by a clash of interests between the various boards of directors and Minister Kereng.
The most recent acting CEO Tshoganetso Carl-Ponoesele was reported to be at the center of the tug of war, with some members of the board having accused her of bypassing the directors to work directly with the Minister. She was, according to sources, Kereng’s preferred candidate to take over the top post.
In what appeared to be a brutal response by the board, Carl-Ponoesele reportedly suffered a humiliation while attending the recent Khawa Dune Challenge 2023 when she received communication that her contract of employment, which was to expire the same weekend, would not be renewed. However, a source told Sunday Standard, the acting CEO had been warned not to attend the annual festival.
Now the ball is back in Kereng’s court as the board awaits confirmation. Unconfirmed reports say Executive Manager Marketing Keitumetse Setlang will serve as the acting CEO until the matter is resolved.
The Minister has been in the past accused of “micro-managing” the parastatal, rendering the role of the board ceremonial, unable to carry out their oversight responsibilities. This, at the time, led to at least three Board members threatening to quit. The Minister had practically become the board, a source said at the time. She has been accused for an alleged refusal to implement the boards’ recommended candidates for the vacant post.
Around February 2021, BTO confirmed the sudden departure of then CEO Sekgororoane through a press statement. Then BTO board chairperson Boitumelo Sekwababe said in the statement that Sekgororoane would leave BTO on February 26, 2021. The reasons for her were never made public. The departure of Sekgororoane happened at a time when the country’s tourism sector was going through a rough patch thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. The sector suffered huge financial losses in 2020-2021 as a result of less activity in both domestic and international tourism.
