Botswana Government’s hunting quotas will this year shift a massive amount of wealth from poor communities in the Chobe enclave to super rich investors with suspected political connections – Sunday Standard investigations have revealed.
Among moneyed investors who are rubbing their hands gleefully in anticipation of outsize returns from their investments in the 2022 hunting quotas at the expense of Chobe enclave poor communities is Tlou Safari Lodge owned by the Kader family.
Suspicions of the Kader family’s political connections first made newspaper headlines after it emerged that the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) was dispatched to construct a landing airstrip at Nogatshaa inside the Chobe National Park for Hollyhock (PTY) Ltd, a private company owned by businessman Karrim Kader and his wife Banoo Kader. Estimates have put the total cost of the airstrip at P6 million – excluding labour, fuel, mobilization and demobilisation by the BDF.
Another beneficiary of the government’s 2022 hunting quota is Shameer Variawa of SV Safaris. It is estimated that between them, the two safari companies will shift in excess of P50 million from poor Chobe enclave communities represented by two community trusts.
Community Trust hunting quotas are sustained by the illusion that they benefit communities. Indications, however are that they are a slight of hand to take from poor and give to the rich.
Sunday Standard investigations have revealed that while the two safari companies stand to make a return of more than 500%, the two community trusts representing Chobe enclave poor residents will share a little over P8 million, barely enough to break even.
Sunday Standard viewed the deal between the rich Safari companies and the poor communities generously through the apocryphal Mark twain aphorism: “when the rich rob the poor, it’s called business”. Concerned Chobe enclave residents however are convinced that the deals are shadier that just business.
Sunday Standard is in possession of petitions by concerned members of the two hunting areas under Chobe Enclave Conservation Trust (CECT) and Panda, Lesoma, Kazungula (PALEKA) Trust suggesting corruption. The petitions which are directed at the District Commissioner to intervene attempt to pull back the curtain on the hunting quotas and show the dirty underbelly of the business dealings between the community trusts and rich hunting safaris.
At the centre of the petitions are the two Safari companies that have been awarded Hunting Quotas by the respective Boards of the two community Trusts to carry out hunting activities in their community Controlled Hunting Areas (CCHA).
The two companies SV Safaris (owned by Shameer Variawa) and Tlou Safari Lodge (owned by the Kader family) have reached agreements with the Trusts to carry out hunting activities for five years commencing 2022.
Curiously, SV Safaris were in 2021 given a contract) for CH1 hunting concession at the value of P5,6 million following an Auction sale. The Company has now been awarded the same contract for 2022 at just over P4 million, at least a million Pula less than their previous contract.
In another questionable development, Tlou Safari Lodge have been given the 2022 contract at the value of P6 million for CH8 and CH12 hunting areas with at least 24 elephants. Previously, in 2021 another company was awarded a contract at the value of P7 million to hunt in CH8 with only 10 elephants on offer. Tlou Safari Lodge stands to pay a million Pula less for at least 14 more elephants than the previous winner.
At the rate of US$75,000 (P860,000) per elephant, Tlou Safari Lodge stands to make at least P20 million from the sale of 24 elephants. This is excluding the US$22,000 (P252, 000) paid per buffalo. Indications are that rules were skirted in awarding the tenders.
Among the concerns raised by Petitioners is failure by the respective Boards to consult the communities before contracting the two safari companies.
Petitioners argue the process employed by the Boards to select the two companies denied the communities an opportunity to maximize value derived from such contracts, leading to millions of Pula in possible losses.
SV Safaris reached an agreement with CECT for the 2022 Hunting Quota at the value of just over P4 million, at least P1 million less than what they paid for the same contract in 2021.
The company were the highest bidders at a 2020 Auction Sale but could not carry out hunting activities then due to Covid-19 restrictions. They were then contracted to carry out hunting from April to September 2021. “The contract dictates that a company contracted for a hunting quota has to pack-up and vacate the concession immediately when the six month contract expires but that has been the case with SV Safaris. They have rather set up a luxury safari camp in the area,” a concerned member of the community told Sunday Standard.
He said they were shocked to learn the company had been given a six months extension overlapping into the 2022 hunting season. “How do you award a hunting license for P4 million when the Community Trust’s annual expenses stand at roughly the same amount? How much will the villages benefit from the deal when all the money goes to running activities of the Trust ?,” he asked rhetorically.
Prior to the Annual General Meeting that was held at Mabele Village on the 30th October, 2021, the Board held consultative meetings in all five (5) villages in respect of the 2022 Hunting Quota, the CECT Petition states.
“It should be noted that these meetings were conducted in the absence of the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). At the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Mabele, members were desperate to make a resolution as to how they want the 2022Hunting Quota to be disposed ofbut the Board informed members that it was yet to meet with Technical Advisory Committee to inform it of the outcome of the consultative meetings held prior to the AGM.”
The Petitioners say it was then resolved that the Board should meet with TAC and further that, no decision should be made by the Board and TAC, and instead, the Board should call a Special AGM at which members would make a final decision regarding any Sublease or Investment Option.
“While members were still waiting for the Board to call a Special AGM, members were set aback to see an advertised Tender Notice inviting companies to enter into a Joint Venture Agreement with CECT in respect of the 2022 Hunting Quota.”
While SV Safaris were the highest bidders in the 2020 auction and were consequently given the license to carry out hunting activities the following year, Sunday Standard has established that the company did not legally exist in 2020.
Records by the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA) indicate the company was only incorporated in 2021, almost a year after winning the hunting license.
CECT Chairman Poniso Shamukuni said he was not aware of the anomaly. “We had engaged a respected auctioneer and they are the ones who would know about the companies involved in the process,” he said. He also dismissed allegations made by the petition and some members of the community. He said they chose to use competitive bidding model to dispose of the quota following consultation with the Technical Advisory Committee. He also defended the decision to award SV Safaris a five year contract which he said includes a three percent annual escalation clause. He said the company were allowed to maintain their camp beyond their 2021 hunting contract because they had expressed interest in bidding for the 2022 Hunting Quota.
“It wouldn’t make sense for them to dismantle their camp only for them to be awarded the contract again,” Shamukuni said. He dismissed the allegations as politically motivated saying no such concerns were raised during his brother and area Member of Parliament Ronald Shamukuni’s kgotla meetings.
The PALEKA Board are also alleged to have awarded a contract to Tlou Safari Lodge under similar “questionable” circumstances.
“The Board did not have authority to make decisions on behalf of the community when it entered into a Memorandum of Understanding and signing any other subsequent agreement with Tlou Safari Lodge Proprietary Limited since there was no resolution made by members at an AGM to that effect,” the petitioners say.
They say consultative meetings were only conducted after the Board had already entered into an agreement with Tlou Safari Lodge. “There are rumors making rounds that, the Board offered CH8 & CH12 to Tlou Safari Lodge Proprietary Limited for a sum less than BWP7, 000, 000.00 (Seven Million Pula) for five (5) years whereas PALEKA raised BWP7, 000, 000.00 (Seven Million Pula) from an auction conducted in respect of CH8 alone in 2020. How they reached this decision still remain suspect and subject to scrutiny.” They say the Board with the advice of TAC has no right to decide on behalf of the general members regarding any Sublease or Investment Option in respect of the Hunting Quota.
The petitioners complain that the Board’s conduct in making a decision on behalf of members, violated the Trust Constitution as well as the Community Based Natural Resources Management Policy (CBNRM) and as such any decision made or agreement signed is a nullity, wrongful and unlawful and stand to be set aside. Both petitions seek for the decisions to award the Hunting Quotas to be reversed. District Commissioner Sekgabo Makgosa refused to answer questions from Sunday Standard. She has reportedly refused to heed concerns by the petitioners. “I will rather not comment on the matter,” she said.
