Reports of Wilderness Safaris systemic racism in Botswana were this week threatening to plunge one of America’s biggest private equity firms into an impact washing scandal.
National outrage against Wilderness Safaris alleged racial abuse of Batswana black workers flared recently following a leaked 2019 video showing a white South African senior manager physically assaulting a black citizen colleague.
The controversy caught a second wind this week when a group of “concerned” Batswana marshalled testimonies of systemic racism and mobilised an online petition against the eco-tourism company.
The concerned group, led by one Setlhomo Stizzy will use the petition to call outThe Rise Fund on the apparent impact washing. The Rise Fund is a Texas based global investment fund committed to impact investment i.e., achieving measurable social, environmental and governance outcomes alongside competitive financial returns. Impact washing on the other hand is the legally actionable overstatement of the commitment to social, environmental and governance propriety.
This comes at a time when American politicians are threatening punitive action against private equity firms found guilty of impact washing also called greenwashing.
The Rise Fund which has a 34% stake in Wilderness Safaris is a subsidiary of TPG one of America’s biggest private equity firms.
The Rise Fund, managed by TPG Growth, is recognized as the largest private impact fund ever raised.
TPG and KKR — two of America’s biggest private equity firms, with about $330bn in total assets between them — have agreed to report annually on the positive environmental, social and governance impacts of their investments, as well as their potentially negative effects. Both firms have signed up to a set of principles laid out by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, under which fund managers will have their reports verified by independent assessors and will need to update information annually.
The aim of the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation monitoring is to ease concerns over impact washing around the Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting.
The goal is to assure institutions such as pension funds and insurers that by committing money to impact funds their money is deployed to solve world problems ethically.
By reporting to the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation, impact investors on the other hand hope to convince investors that their environmental, social and corporate governance credentials are more than just branding.
At its core, impact investing aims to combine investment returns with a social or environmental purpose.
In July 2018The Rise Fund, announced its second investment in Africa by acquiring 34% of Botswana-born Wilderness Holdings, Ltd., a leading ecotourism group with operations in seven African countries.
The deal was promoted as an impact investment that aligned with UN sustainable development goals. To this end, Wilderness Holdings CEO Keith Vincent during the acquisition ceremony stated that, “Wilderness works closely with local community leaders and drives local economic growth by creating stable, well-paying jobs in the communities where it operates.”
The petition compiled by “concerned” Batswana however suggest that Wilderness is exploiting Batswana workers, paying them less than their white counterparts, practices systemic racism and worse. The petition claims that Batswana workers experience racial harassment at work and are subjected to unfair treatment by their employer because of their skin colour. Wilderness released a statement last week following a leaked 2019 video showing a white South African senior manager physically assaulting a black citizen colleague.
Sunday Standard has been informed the victim in the video was eventually dismissed from work following the incident on an unrelated charge.
The company however insists the employee resigned of his own accord.
“Disciplinary action was taken against him in line with our own internal HR policies resulting in a suspension. He subsequently chose to resign,” Wilderness Safaris Botswana Managing Director Kim Nixon told Sunday Standard this week.
He said the South African expatriate manager also resigned over the incident.
While an official statement from the company suggests they have only become aware of the incident recently following the leaked video, employees told Sunday Standard management were made aware of the incident back in 2019. The citizen employee was dismissed from work then, this publication has been informed.
“Despite the passage of time, this issue is receiving our full attention. Wilderness Safaris has a zero-tolerance policy against any form of violence. The conduct of the senior member of staff in this matter is not acceptable, irrespective of any lapse by a staff member, as was the case in this incident. Such conduct directly contravenes the policies, culture and philosophy of the business,” the statement reads.
“It was never reported nor brought to the attention of the business, including by staff present at the time. Issues like lockdown and slow reopening of the camps since that time made it even more challenging to resolve rumors, despite conscious effort in this regard by Management.”
The Sunday Standard can however reveal that contrary to Wilderness press statement, there were no lockdowns and slow reopening in 2019 when the incident happened.
The lockdown was only imposed in 2020 following the first case of Covid 19 in Botswana.
In 2020 Management at Wilderness Safaris Botswana was again accused of protecting an abusive expatriate manager at the expense of his victim, a Motswana junior staffer working at one of the company’s luxury safari camps, Mombo Camp.
The executive chef, another white South African expatriate, was reported to the company’s senior management for abusing his understudy.
A senior employee from the company who was not happy with the handling of the case told Sunday Standard the understudy was physically and verbally abused by his senior.
“The manager is still employed and it looks like he is being protected by the senior management of Wilderness Safaris Botswana while the junior staff member has continued to be victimized and is set to be relocated to a different camp,” Sunday Standard was told at the time.
Abuse of citizen staff within Wilderness Safaris luxury camps is reportedly rampant because the employees do not have a collective voice.
“A lot is being swept under the carpet,” Sunday Standard has been informed. “Expatriate employees receive better treatment.”
Wilderness Safaris Botswana called the 2020 incident a confidential internal HR matter. “We are confident that we handled it quickly, seriously and in accordance with our internal HR processes,” they said at the time.
“Wilderness Safaris is deeply committed to the welfare of its internal community and addresses all staff issues with the utmost importance. We take all grievances related to behavior very seriously and address all staff matters as a priority,” the company said.
The company has also come under fire from citizen employees over their treatment since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The company is accused of keeping expatriates at the camps while sending locals home. The employees complain that their expatriate colleagues also receive a higher percentage of their monthly salary than their citizen colleagues.
But Managing Director Nixon has dismissed the complaints. “There is no favoritism,” he told Sunday Standard this week.
“Note that about 90 percent of our staff are locals so when we do send people back home a great majority are bound to be locals,” Nixon explained.
“We only send citizens away because they have alternative homes here in Botswana. It’s difficult to send an expatriate home temporarily during this difficult period of international movement restrictions.”
Nixon said in relation to disparities in percentage remuneration they pay employees according the number of working ours they have to put in. Those who have been sent home are of course not getting paid as much as the skeletal staff, he said, adding that even the skeletal staff are paid according to the hours they are required to put in.
“When this whole coronavirus issue is behind us, we intend by all means to retain our entire staff compliment and we can only achieve that by sticking to the measures we put in place to mitigate the difficult period we are currently facing as a business.” He said the company’s annual revenue has dropped by at least 90 percent since the beginning of 2020.
Wilderness Safaris is one of Africa’s leading luxury and sustainable safari operators. With over 20 luxury camps across Botswana Wilderness Safaris Botswana subsidiary is the biggest, accounting for the largest share of the company’s revenue.
