BY KABELO SEITSHIRO
The Diamond Trading Company Botswana (DTC Botswana) Managing Director (MD) Tabake Kobedi has reportedly tendered his resignation from the company.
Kobedi quit the company’s top position this week following his suspension from duty pending investigations that have been on since around September 2018. The suspension came after social media burst that Kobedi had a sexual relationship with a minor, an accusation he later refuted.
Seven months later, those close to the matter told Sunday Standard that Kobedi was forced to resign by the DTCB Board of directors. The DTCB board is chaired by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources – Cornelius Dekop.
Despite the forced resignation, sources within DTCB have hinted that by Friday this week the board had not yet responded to Kobedi’s resignation.
It has also emerged that the board has been struggling with concrete evidence against Kobedi which made it difficult to charge or even dismiss him on the sexual scandal accusation.
The delay has been attributed to the disagreement on the terms of exit for Kobedi who has been home for over seven months now.
DTCB Chairman and the Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources Cornelius Dekop on Friday claimed to be unaware of the matter and he referred this publication to DTCB Corporate Communications department.
On Friday DTC Botswana Corporate Communications Manager Kago Mmopi said that DTCB’s policy prohibits public engagement on internal matters related to the member staff.
Also when contacted Kobedi said “any information the company and my employment I am advising you to deal the company’s public relations and corporate communications. He remained very cagey on the issues and did not accept further questions.
Before joining DTCB Kobedi was previously the Group Finance Manager for Debswana.
