On a wing and a prayer

Thursday evening. Straight from work, Joshua Galeforolwe drops his brief case on the sitting room floor and heads for his liquor cabinet.

He returns with a half empty bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label whisky. The frown on his face, as he looks at the tilted bottle in his hand, suggests that it is not enough to see him through the turbulent weeks ahead. He fumbles into his jacket, retrieves a cell phone handset and proceeds to punch a few digits. “I have run out of whisky, please stop at the bottle store and bring me a bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label,” he says to the voice on the other end.

There is no trace of his easy smile as he locks his eyes on the glass of Johnny Walker Black on the table. “I am sorry I do not give press interviews,” he tells me. He plied me with his absurdly strong drink, and I left with a vague promise of an interview at some unspecified future date.

It’s a good thing Galeforolwe always has a bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label in his liquor cabinet and a strong ticker on his chest. The PEEPA chief executive officer goes through enough “oh shucks” moments every day to give most people a heart attack.

Take today, for example: Its September 14, a pivotal moment in the privatization of Air Botswana. Galeforolwe, who is still fighting to keep his job, has run into a buzz saw of negative publicity about his privatization credentials. His biggest project so far, the privatization of Air Botswana, is stumbling forward with a patchwork of suitors. Big names like British Airways, ComAir and three others have withdrawn their bids. As PEEPA and PPADB staff members proceed to open the bid envelopes, temperatures are rising. And then more bad news: All remaining three bidders are disqualified. After a lot of running around and sweating, it turns out that, in the heat of passion, one of the staff members forgot the bidders’ financial reports in the envelope. Subsequently, two make it through while Lobtrans is disqualified. The day ends with a sigh of relief.

Things must be pretty bad when only two upstart companies bidding for the country privatization flag carrier are enough to bring a sigh of relief. But that is where Botswana’s privatization found itself this week. The national airline was P16 million in the red last year and continues to sink deeper into the red. The cash strapped parastatal needs at least P300 million in recapitalization funds. Key staff members are handing in their resignations and only a few nautical miles separate the airline’s battered aircrafts from the scrap heap ÔÇô and some. The airline watchers are keeping their fingers crossed that it is privatized before it collapses on the weight of its losses.

Other troubled privatization transactions on Galeforolwe’s desk are not helping the situation. The first was the setting up of a Privatization Trust Fund that would warehouse shares of privatized entities for future purchase by Batswana.

Minutes of a PEEPA board meeting under the subject read: “management advised that the recruitment of an advisor to work on the project was due to commence in September, while the preparation of the trust deed was scheduled to commence in December for ultimate approval by the Board in January, 2006. Concern was raised that this scheduling was inordinately long for a project as simple as a trust deed especially since there were already precedents from CEDA and Venture Capital that could be utilized. The Board accordingly directed that Management need not go through any elaborate tendering procedure for recruitment for an advisor. Management was to engage a lawyer with a view to expediting work to ensure that the deed was ready in time for Government to commit funds to the trust when the budget speech is made in February, 2006.”

The result of the board meeting was a letter signed by Galeforolwe appointing Collins & Newman law firm to draft the deed. The transaction was this week floundering in a credibility crisis when it emerged that one of the board members, Parks Tafa, is a senior partner at Collins & Newman law firm. Sources close to PEEPA, however, state that Galeforolwe has never been happy with Tafa sitting in the PEEPA board and heading a company commissioned to draft the deed for PEEPA. He privately complained of conflict of interests and warned that the privatization agency was at risk of being hemmed in by powerful special interests.

Botswana’s turbulent privatization may be breaking Galeforolwe’s heart, but not his will.

Venturing publicly where he has not gone happily before, Galeforolwe this week told the Botswana Guardian that “on a matter of principle” he finds it unacceptable that certain people who sit on the board of PEEPA should have direct dealings with some agencies that are earmarked for privatization.

He also cited his unhappiness that Tafa ÔÇô referred to only as “a certain board member” ÔÇô sits in the PEEPA board and is also legal advisor for Botswana Vaccine Institute in another privatization transaction currently before the PEEPA board.

He spoke about “disturbing things” he has been reading about himself in the newspapers. By talking about “disturbing things” written about him and his defence for principle, Galeforolwe seems to be seeking to gain a sympathetic constituency and trying to display the nuanced, trustworthy character required to drive the privatization process where millions of Pula are at stake.

All these are part of the jostling in the PEEPA boardroom as Galeforolwe tries to secure his reappointment as the privatization agency’s CEO, much against the wish of the board.

The PEEPA board has cobbled together a compromise deal where Galeforolwe would work alongside a “Chief Operations Officer” who would report directly to the board and be of equal status to the CEO. While Galeforolwe will be responsible for managing PEEPA processes, the Chief Operations Officer will be charged with the PEEPA divesture which is the core of privatization.

Galeforolwe’s sympathizers are reading sinister motives into the horse trading deal; that it is meant to get him out of the way and open up a cherry pickingfest for some powerful interests.
Although Galeforolwe and his board find themselves on opposite sides of the battle line, they have all come to the same conclusion that Botswana’s privatization is failing.

While the board blames Galeforolwe for the failure of the privatization process, he, on the other hand, recently told the media that the problem goes much deeper. Galeforolwe has always insisted on a legislation to empower PEEPA to carry out privatization transactions, the board on the other hand, wants PEEPA to remain as an advisory body.

“They insist that our role be advisory. We have been struggling to roll out the Master Plan precisely because of this. I suppose that is what they mean by my incompetence.”