Given that a majority of Batswana would one way or another have been inconvenienced by the spate of power outages that have become so much a regular feature of our country in the last two months, we find ourselves in a position where we have no choice but to urge them to pause and ask themselves just how we got into this mess in this first place.
In their attempt to answer this short but loaded question, we want to urge Batswana to put faces and names to the meltdown that we are going through.
It cannot be accepted that the outages we are witnessing are an act of God.
It would be a lie to say the outages were inevitable.
From the look of things we put too much trust and faith in our leaders and they have not only failed but disappointed us.
Accountability, it would seem, has now become a thing of the past.
Why is it that in such a stark of failure we do not hear that anybody has paid with their job as a result?
Could it be because at the Government enclave the power outages are viewed as a mishap that could not have been foreseen? Or are people simply covering each other’s back?
If that is so then God Help us all!
One aspect that has up to now not been sufficiently addressed in the wake of these destructive power outages is the manner at which corporate governance was routinely flouted, especially at Botswana Power Corporation.
It is not possible to address the issue of corporate governance without making direct references to the BPC Board of Directors.
We know very well that there have been serious lapses in political guidance from the responsible Ministry. We know that the Department of Energy Affairs has particularly failed to provide oversight and effective regulatory leadership.
What we do not know is just what role if any did the BPC Board of Directors play in the unpardonable and potentially irreparable mess into which we find ourselves knee-deep as a nation.
This is a pertinent question that should be addressed.
On behalf of the shareholder, the BPC Board of Directors is supposed to provide strategic direction and leadership to the corporation management.
Given that energy is a key strategic resource with clear implications on national security, did the current BPC Board of Directors fully appreciate the gravity and seriousness of the responsibilities that were on their shoulders beyond just their fiduciary duties?
Or, as it seems to have been the case with everyone else, they too were preoccupied with cutting corners and running away with slices of the multi-billion Pula Morupule “B” contract under whose waste the entire nation now seems to be reeling.
We have always known that BPC executive management was weak.
This because Botswana Power Corporation is a heavy leaden beast, that lacks even a bare requisite agility to respond to a state of crisis.
When you have such moribund organization required to deliver a project whose delivery the entire wellbeing of the organisation relies upon, then you need strong leadership, not just at executive level but also at board level not least when faced with stiff and tight deadlines as such those under which the ill-fated Morupule “B” was constructed.
But under the circumstances, an absence of strong guidance; at political level, regulatory level, board level and executive level has meant that the BPC project was a tragedy made in hell.
Given the weaknesses at all these key areas literally left BPC on auto-pilot.
That on its own was a recipe for disaster, which, by the way, has struck.
With hindsight, we should not be surprised that we are in the mess into which we now are wailing.
We caused it upon ourselves.
But still somehow we put our hopes on the fact that the Board would provide guidance.
Even as we speak we still do not know if the BPC Board really appreciates the seriousness of the situation.
Their solution, it would seem, has been to close their eyes with the hope that by the time they open them, a solution would have delivered itself as to correct the mess that is Morupule “B”.
At a time when the nation does not even know where to look to, who to ask let alone who to blame, the BPC Board of Directors have elected to go into hiding.
We call on the appointing authority to replace all the BPC Board of Directors.
After that a review has to made to audit if BPC has right leadership at executive levels to be able to see the corporation through what is by all accounts a crisis phase.
The BPC has been allowed to become a feeding pot, not just for bogus Chinese contractors but also for the many citizens who are associated with it.
This applies to lawyers and consultants who have been allowed a free reign, but also potentially to the Board and Executive Management.
We need a new and clean start.
In the meantime the DCEC has its job cut out, to determine if there has been no foul play in the expenditure of the P11 billion that was intended to deliver a power station that never came.
