"Khama wasn't conflicted in sale of Air Botswana to Wilderness Holdings"

Minister of Transport and Communications Kitso Mokaila has rubbished claims that President Ian Khama has business interests in the dual-listed tourism giant, Wilderness Holdings.

Wilderness which is listed both in the Botswana Stock Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange operates in the tourism heart of the country in the Makgadikgadi areas. Mokaila called a media brief on Tuesday afternoon at the national television studios, following reports on Air Botswana privatisation efforts last week in which one of the interested parties, Wilderness Group, pulled out of the discussions.

Wilderness withdrew its interest following media reports that it was the preferred candidate and was confirmed by Cabinet after President Ian Khama gave a directive for the Company to own Air Botswana.

Mokaila has expressed displeasure at the way the local media reported on the matter. Mokaila also used the platform to rubbish media reports that Khama was a shareholder in Wilderness Holdings. He advised that, “Factual reporting is important.

There is no truth in that Khama is a shareholder in Wilderness. What I can tell you is that he has five percent in Linyanthi Concessions. When we recommended Wilderness, we looked at this to find if indeed there is any conflict of interest and there was none; his only business interest is at a Concessions level and as low as five percent.”

Mokaila explained that Air Botswana and the Ministry came with a Cabinet Memorandum and presented it to the President. From the 17 companies that had expressed interest, two companies (Wilderness Holdings and CemAir) had the best models identified, he said.

Air Botswana at the same time had also worked with IATA to come up with a business plan; and from that business plan together with the models of the other two companies which came out outstandingly, the Committee had to come up with the final best suitable model for the airline.

He confirmed that, “Cabinet directive was saying we should meet with Wilderness, but it did not confirm Wilderness as the new company to take over Air Botswana. It would have been an added advantage for Air Botswana to reach lucrative tourism routes in which Wilderness operates.” Permanent Secretary Kabelo Ebineng conceded that Wilderness was coming with access to other markets. He added: “As to who was going to do Air Botswana operations, it was still an ongoing process and we had not yet reached that stage.” Initially he said they had anticipated the privatisation process to take nine to 12 months, but said now the Ministry will have to go and do other evaluations since Wilderness has pulled out.

“We do not know how long this will take. Wilderness pulled back as a business decision. As a brand it is always key to protect the image of the company and as a listed company they did not want to be associated with the negativity that came with the reports, this was going to impact on their share price,” said Ebineng on why Wilderness made a u-turn. It also emerged that, Air Botswana, which has been working closely with ATR aircraft manufacturers for the past 15 years, had earlier discussed with ATR on how best they can work together going forward in terms of assistance with the aircraft.

Air Botswana has been considering re-fleeting but funds limitations remain a major challenge for the airliner. In their discussions, Mokaila highlighted this week that ATR had wanted Air Botswana to acquire some of its new fleet in exchange for the old fleets. “Air Botswana then approached Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF) for funding. Of all the commercial banks that the airliner had approached, they all wanted a government guarantee, which route Air Botswana did not want to go. Because Air Botswana did not want a government guarantee, they then approached the BPOPF,” explained the Minister.