The first thing that strikes you when entering the Government Supplies Warehouse at the Gaborone West Old Industrial site is mounds of rubbish peeping through knee high tufts of dry grass.
A rusty-poked electricity meter box with copper wires hanging out betrays years of power blackouts. A railway track buried under swathes of grass suggests that it has been ages since the goods train called.
Rust is eating up abandoned “Messageries Maritime” goods containers and the rusted sign writing now reads: “Masgies Martim.”
The only sign of life amid the skeletons of abandoned equipment and desolate buildings with broken doors and windows is a lone DOSS security guard manning the gate.
We are sitting under a car port at the entrance to the premises and the Gaborone City Mayor, Harry Mothei, is bubbling with patches of anger and concern.
“This facility is housing millions of Pula worth of government property. It’s a shame that the security lights have not been working for years. I am going to take it upon myself to make sure that something is done about the lights, upkeep and general security of this place, even if it means taking up the issue with the minister.”
These are not the rumblings of a self righteous politician playing to the gallery of journalists, civil servants and security officers, far from it. The city mayor is aware that if anything went wrong at the supplies warehouse, government could lose hundreds of millions of Pula.
When the Ministry of Health got worried at the theft of ARVs and other expensive drugs at the government medical supplies, they allegedly moved some of the supplies here. The Ministry of Education has also stored millions of Pula worth of computers here. Almost all government ministries have stored their valuables here. The warehouse is a fortress against thieves and the elements, and houses allegedly close to a billion pula worth of government supplies.
A spokesperson from the Home Affairs Ministry, who are custodians of the warehouse, Mr Tema, revealed that government departments just “dump” their goods at the warehouse without stopping to think about their security or the state of the warehouse.
“Most government departments have warehouses here, but none of them is prepared to take responsibility for their upkeep and security,” Tema said.
Further complicating the issue is that the facility has been passed from one ministry to the next without proper hand over. “It has gone through, I don’t know how many hands”, Tema said.
Worried at the security threat posed by the neglect, Managing Director of DOSS Security, who has been contracted to guard the facility, last week took the city mayor, Harry Mothei, representatives from the government security department, and officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs on a guided tour of the warehouses.
The guided tour meant parrying thorn bushes, going around rubbish heaps and walking through swathes of dry grass with Kenosi pointing out broken windowpanes, locks eaten up by rust and then suddenly “Ah! Ah!”
The Ah! Ah! was from one member of the group as they went past a warehouse with a broken door exposing government documents in Lever Arch files stacked up to the rafters.
“The security lights on the premises have not been working for years and with only one security officer guarding the huge premises at night, the facility is a sitting duck for thieves. The grass has also not been cut for ages and if it were to catch fire with the petrol warehouse next door, all these warehouses would be burnt to ashes together with the millions of Pula worth of goods inside,” warned Kenosi.
“And this is an affront to the productivity and efficiency that President Ian Khama is always talking about,” Kenosi pointed out. The Managing Director of DOSS is not just dropping names. He knows that to get civil servants to roll back their sleeves and do their work, you have to mention the president’s name.
Khama is known to, once in a while, rock up at government offices unannounced just to ensure that civil servants do their work. Most civil servants know that incidents such as the government supplies warehouse would earn them his wrath. Kenosi was hoping that mentioning the president’s name would get them to sit up and do something.
“Ideally, this facility should be having at least ten security guards per shift”, says Colonel Nthobelang, government Chief Security Officer who expressed concern at the shabby state and the inadequate security at the facility which shares a fence with a BP petrol warehouse.
The Chief Security Officer commended Kenosi for his assessment of the security threats at the government supplies warehouse and for alerting government.
Kenosi, like Colonel Nthobelang, has years of military training behind him.
