Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DIS) Director General, Isaac Kgosi’s shares in Choppies are worth about P17 million,Sunday Standard investigations have revealed. Although the share certificate issued to Kgosi on September 2011 shows that the DIS Director General was issued 3 999 990 shares at P1 a share, Sunday Standard has been able to establish that Kgosi was actually offered the shares at 1Thebe a share which priced the shares at P40 000.
The Sunday Standard, however has not been able to establish if Kgosi paid the P40 000. Two months after Choppies gave Kgosi the shares at 1 Thebe a share, the company placed 260 869 565 to invited investors at P1,15 a share and this immediately pushed Kgosi’s shares in Choppies to about P4 000 000. At the close of business on Friday, Choppies shares were valued at P4,20 a share meaning that Kgosi’s shares now stand at P16.8 million. Curiously, Kgosi’s company, Silver Shadows which owns the shares in Choppies is not listed in the prospectus issued by the chain store in its prospectus which was issued prior to the listing on Botswana Stock exchange.
The Prospectus only listed the directors’ shareholding in the company. The prospectus list only three shareholders being Ramachandran Ottappathu who owns 488 912 658 shares, Farouk Esssop Ismail also owned 488 912 658 shares at the time of listing while former President Festus Mogae owns 40 000 000 shares which have a current value of more than P160 million. In what borders on conflict of interest, Kgosi is the head of DIS which does security clearance for expatriates seeking work and residence permits in Botswana.
Choppies in which he is a share holder is the biggest importer of Indian expatriate workers in Botswana and unconfirmed reports claim that unlike other local companies trying to import Indian workers into the country, work and resident permits of Choppies expatriates are never rejected. The Sunday Standard could not establish how many work and resident permits of Choppies expatriates have been rejected by DIS since Kgosi took up shares in the company.
