Varsha Enterprises, a company owned by land mogul, Sayed Jamali, has terminated the controversial  P30 million per annum lease agreement with government.
The lease agreement has been terminated immediately without notice. The letter of cancellation is dated 8th of this month.
The spacious four-story building in Gaborone’s CBD Mall was secured in December last year to accommodate the Ministry of Defence, Justice and Security headquarters in Gaborone.
The lease agreement has been dogged by controversy after it emerged during a sitting of the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee that it breached government tendering procedures and was made without approval.
Through his lawyers, Sadique Kebonang Attorneys, Jamali has decided to cancel the lease agreement concluded with the Ministry of Lands and Housing because government has not been paying rent.
Despite being offered the building at a ‘cheaper’ rate, at least by CBD standards, Varsha Enterprises says that government has failed to pay.
The lease was to run for 5 years with rentals paid quarterly from the first of October 2012 until 2019.
“The department has failed to pay any rental as envisaged by the lease agreement even in the instances where client agreed to the department’s request accommodate and/or waive the rental payable and to agree to new commencement date. The concessions made by our client have come at great financial loss to client and, unfortunately, the concessions don’t seem to be reciprocated by the department,” states Varsha Enterprises.
“Given the uncertainty from the department as to when and whether it still requires the building, client has to mitigate its loss as it is currently not being paid nor the building being occupied. The mitigation requires our client to withdraw from the lease as it hereby does,” it further reads in part.
“Client is no longer in a position to continue with a lease and consequently withdraws from it. In withdrawing, client will naturally have to take the risk of the loss,” states the letter signed by Jamali’s lawyer Sadique Kebonang.
