At a time when it should be preparing for the next High Court battle with the government, the First People of the Kalahari (FPK) is broke, has been without an office or property for over six months and is embroiled in a bitter battle with Kgosimontle Kebualemang, its former coordinator.
The organisations leader, Roy Sesana, says that he has not received a salary since July last year and that creditors are breathing down his neck. That is not where Sesana’s problems end. He has been accused of industrial indiscipline and before he left, Kebualemang had been planning to call him for a disciplinary hearing for unathorised absenteeism from work.
Sesana’s long-time translator, Jumanda Gakelebone, fared much better. Convinced of his “professional prowess”, Kebualemang promoted Gakelebone to Assistant Coordinator. Sesana reacts with incredulity to both the indiscipline charge against him and Gakelebone’s promotion.
“How can someone I hired call me to a disciplinary hearing?” Sesana asks rhetorically.
He adds that, as a temporary employee, Kebualemang has no authority to promote fellow employees.
According to a letter written by Gwanxlae Xwigam, the chairman of FPK board, the organisation is in the red and has been dispossessed of its property including two vehicles, five satellite phones and antennae, two solar panels and office equipment like a laptop and two personal computers. This property is supposed to be in the possession of Kebualemang who has relocated from Gantsi, where FPK has its offices to Maun. He reportedly locked up the office and did not return the key to his employers.
Xwigam blames Kebualemang for the current financial crisis that the organisation is going through.
“FPK has experienced the highest amount of debt (over P100 000) during your time of office since April 2007. FPK board has learned that you have been borrowing money from individuals and organisations in the name of FPK for your personal use. The board has learned that you are planning to sell FPK vehicle (B501 AEI) and the plot without the consent of the board. The board has also learned that one of the project vehicles has been badly damaged and now at police in Maun after you hit a horse some months ago which you failed to report to FPK board. You have also failed to inform FPK board as to what you were doing in Maun with project vehicle,” the board chairman says in his letter to Kebualemang.
Currently, FPK has no office and on that account its officers have no access to its stationery. Xwigam’s letter, for instance, is not written under FPK’s letterhead because the author did not have access to the office at the time of writing. To this date that remains the case.
Before he left, Kebualemang is supposed to have moved the office from the outskirts of the township to a new location and “employed two female personal secretaries without the consent of the FPK board.”
Over and above those other charges, Kebualemang is said to have done a shoddy job of raising funds before he disappeared.
The FPK board had an emergency meeting on May 6 at the end of which it resolved to fire Kebualemang and order him to return its property.
Kebualemang’s own letter in which he responds to the “malicious submissions and ill-advised resolution” is written under the FPK letterhead. He begins by refuting the charge that he failed to raise funds for the organisation.
“For your ignorance, before one can even consider compiling a funding proposal, there are principal internal dynamics to chiefly worry about. First and foremost are the organisation’s structural setup and its capacity to properly handle and administer funds,” Kebualemang says, adding that this particular principal internal dynamic has been of grave concern to some of FPK’s donors.
He adds that, personally, he put together three funding proposals “and one resulted in FPK roping in USD10 000; barely two months after my assuming office.”
On the issue of the vehicles and relocating to Maun, he states: “Please allow me to rubbish sentiments contained in your statements 2, 3 and 6, alleging that I have ‘indefinitely’ closed the FPK office in Gantsi and am using vehicles B501 AIE and B786ADE for personal purposes in Mababe and Maun.
Your unfortunate insinuation is not only defamatory but trying to run away from a very well known truth. You all know fully well that you have not been paying any FPK staff member their salary since July last year and I simply could not cope with living in Gantsi out of my own pocket for any prolonged period…. You all know that by the time I assumed office, B501AIE was already in Maun and it’s a sitting hippo. B786ADE is the official transport piece available to me or to any FPK officer when conducting official duties. The reason it is in Maun is the same reason I am in Maun.”
He admits the vehicle was involved in an accident but adds that “accidents always happen in the course of work” and that the accident was not the first and would not be the last. In another part of the letter Kebualemang says that “only a lightheaded person would expect to run an organisation without incurring expenses.”
With regard to moving the FPK office, Kebualemang says that he wanted to work closer to the township’s CBD and was “not going to sit idle in an empty huge office” and get the blame for not raising funds.
“This move was however effectuated after reaching a consensus with all the other employees of the organisation,” he explains.
He describes the sources for the information about him having employed two female personal secretaries as being “quite awake but stupid” and challenges the board to give him their names “so I could promote them.”
He invites the board to come to Maun “and pick without any hesitation or negotiation, your two computers and solar panels, if you can find them.”
The FPK board has threatened legal action.
The finale of the current episode borrows the clich├® of B Hollywood movies. Xwigam’s letter notifies Kebualemang that his contract has been terminated. On the other hand, the latter rejects that and states in his own letter that he is quitting.
