Botswana Post is going through difficult times as reports indicate that, added to a string of dismal financial performances over the years, the Post Office has also started hemorrhaging key members of its executive.
Following the resignation of Chief Executive Officer Pele Moleta early this week, fresh information has surfaced that Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Kutlwano Mswela also tendered her resignation on Friday. Moleta resigned on Tuesday after serving as CEO for over seven years.
Three days after Moleta’s resignation, Botswana Post Board Chairman Polokoetsile Motau failed to show up and address a well attended press conference which was scheduled for Thursday at Poso House. Head of Strategy and Communications, Lebogang Bok later explained that the Botswana Postal Services Board Chairman was held up somewhere. Instead, management issued a press release confirming Moleta’s resignation.
“I wish for it to be noted that at this stage there are no details to share as the matter is with the appointing authority, the Minister of Transport and Communications,” read the two lined statement. ┬á
Information reaching Sunday Standard indicates that Moleta tendered his resignation after he was head hunted by Barclays Bank of Botswana for the position of Chief Operations Officer (COO), deputizing the bank’s Managing Director (MD). Industry sources have opined that Moleta is being groomed to take over as substantive Barclays MD after the departure of the current MD, South African Reinette van der Merwe in few years, effectively localizing the bank’s plum post.
“Another possible candidate to take over as Barclays MD is Aupa Monyatsi who benefited from the One Africa Strategy after assuming a leadership role at the Barclays Africa Regional Office as Head of Customer Network for Retail and Business Banking, overseeing 12 markets across Africa,” a source said.
Immediate past Botswana Postal Services Board Chairman, Martin Makgatlhe also resigned from the board on 31st March last year. While at Botswana Post, Moleta set himself the target of growing the Post Office into a P500 million company with a cost to income ratio of 60 percent by 2016. At the time he said he did so deliberately and very conscious of the conditions under which the Post Office was operating. He was able to plan several new initiatives, some of which have already been rolled out. Botswana Post is now an electricity super vendor for Botswana Power Corporation (BPC), meaning that customers are able to purchase electricity vouchers through their branch network and a Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) customer touch point which means customers can pay water bills through the Post Office.
Moleta has been in the financial sector for most of his career. He started work at FNBB in 1994 after graduating from the University of Botswana where he studied Bachelor of Arts in Accounting and Economics. He would later leave the bank and join Old Mutual as Asset Manager. That was in 2002. Moleta retraced his steps to First National bank Botswana (FNBB) in 2005. He also had a stint at IFSC. Parliament in December 2013 passed the Botswana Postal Service Amendment Bill. After approval by Cabinet, Botswana Post and Botswana Savings Bank (BSB) will merge and operate under a holding company called Botswana Post and Savings Group Limited.
