The Botswana Tourism organisation which is charged with driving Botswana’s tourism sector has been operating without a substantive CEO for 20 months at a time when Botswana is experiencing the largest decline in tourism competitiveness of all Southern African countries.
With the BTO rudderless in the face of Botswana’s declining tourism competitiveness, the questions on everyone’s lips are:
What is the board of directors doing? How could they let this happen? Why are directors not doing a better job of monitoring corporate management? The three word answer is Minister Phildah Kereng.
The Minister of Tourism appears reluctant to appoint a substantive chief executive officer (CEO) at BTO despite a board of directors’ recommendation.
Ministry of Tourism Acting Permanent Secretary (PS) Abigail Engleton confirmed that the BTO Board made a recommendation to the Minister a few months ago.
The BTO top job post has been vacant since March 2021. The candidate who was initially recommended for the post in 2021 Moatlhodi Sebabole, passed on while waiting on Cabinet to approve his appointment.
Sunday Standard can reveal that the BTO Board of Directors which was dissolved in 2021 had recommended Sebabole to Minister Kereng to for consideration as BTO substantive CEO. His ultimate appointment was however stalled for more than a quarter of a year, until he passed on.
With the BTO operating without a substantive CEO, The Minister of Tourism is alleged to have neutered the BTO board of its oversight authority, rendering the tourism parastatal ungovernable – a source has revealed.
For close to two months now, Minister Kereng has failed to respond to a Sunday Standard questionnaire on the goings on the the BTO.
The headless and free falling BTO is reported to be failing to carry out its mandate to market and position Botswana as a premier tourist destination, promote investment and product diversification in the tourism industry. The BTO Act also mandates the tourism parastatal “to do all things necessary to market and promote tourist attractions and to encourage and facilitate travel, by local and foreign tourists, to the said attractions. That includes planning, developing and implementing tourism marketing and promotion strategies aimed at creating and sustaining a positive image of Botswana as a tourist and investor destination as well as implementing strategies for promoting sustainable tourism development in collaboration with the private sector in the tourism industry, local authorities, local communities and non-governmental organisations.”
The BTO is expected to implement Government policies and programmes aimed at facilitating the continued growth and development of the tourism sector. The organisation has however confined themselves to mainly organising fleeting calendar events that have no sustainable benefits for communities involved, effectively failing to diversify Botswana’s tourism.
Such has been Kereng’s alleged micro-management that the BTO Board of Directors’ role has become ceremonial, unable to carry out their oversight responsibilities. This has led to at least three Board members threatening to quit.
A source said Kereng practically become the Board, a source has said. The most notable in a series of tug of wars between Kereng and the Board is her alleged refusal to implement the Board’s recommended candidates for the vacant chief executive officer post.
It has been at least four months since the Board concluded their recruitment process, and submitted their choice of preferred candidate.
Kereng, has continued to sit on the name. The Minister’s preferred candidate for BTO’s top post, Sunday Standard has been informed, is the parastatal’s acting CEO Tshoganetso Carl-Ponoesele with whom Kereng enjoys a good personal relationship.
The friendship has reportedly extended to the workplace, with the acting CEO reportedly bypassing the Board and reporting directly to the Minister. While the recently resigned Board Chairman Boitumelo Sekwababe refused to respond to our enquiries, Sunday Standard is informed the refusal to appoint a substantive CEO formed part of his decision to eventually step down. The Minister reportedly rushed to suspend the Chairman upon learning of Sekwababe’s impending resignation, citing governance issues.
“I hereby accept your resignation from the Botswana Tourism Organisation Board as a Member and Chairman, following your suspension from the Board regarding matters of Corporate Governance as stated in the Ministry correspondence,” Kereng wrote when accepting Sekwababe’s resignation.
“I wish to however, state that investigations on corporate governance irregularities will still be continued. During the period of the investigation, you are to avoid any interaction with the BTO and Ministry stakeholders on matters that may jeopardize the process.”
The Minister’s conduct has reportedly emboldened BTO top management, leading to a defiant attitude towards the Board. This was made clear by the management’s decision to defy a Board resolution to reinstate following contract expiry. The Manager had reportedly passed a performance review exercise. The Acting CEO reportedly asked the Minister to intervene following the Board resolution, leading to their refusal to implement the resolution.
A consultancy company engaged by the Board to review the structure and salaries of BTO employees has reportedly also complained of lack of cooperation from management.
A report by the World Bank has revealed that Botswana is experiencing the largest decline in tourism competitiveness of all Southern African countries.
According to the Bank, the decline suggests a level of complacency in a sector with entrenched public and private sector stakeholders and calls for continuously innovating and improving or risk further decline. “Moreover, low rankings for ‘extent of market dominance’ suggest sector domination by a small number of businesses, likely exacerbated by long-term concession frameworks to few operators in protected areas and decreasing pressures for market reform,” says the World Bank.
Possible tourism hotspots such Khawa village have to endure extended periods of relative poverty and business inactivity, forced to wait a whole year for the next event because BTO and the Ministry of Tourism have failed to implement sustainable strategies to ensure dunes (and related) activities are not confined to the annual Dune Challenge.
A World Bank report earlier this year warned of a bleak future for Botswana’s water based wildlife safari tourism due to the effects climate change.
“Climate change and environmental degradation pose existential threats to Botswana’s tourism and its competitiveness,” the report said.
Acceleration of desertification caused by Climate change is reportedly putting pressure on key wildlife habitats, particularly through water scarcity. Botswana’s wildlife tourism is concentrated in the northern part of the country, driven primarily by water sources such as the Okavango Delta and Chobe River.
The World Bank says Climate change and water scarcity, along with geopolitical implications in upstream Angola, may threaten the competitiveness of Botswana’s wildlife safari offering, which is dependent on ample water inflow into the Okavango Delta. It is the responsibility of the Tourism Ministry through BTO to ensure tourism is diversified away form over dependence on the wetlands in the north.
