Opposition slams ‘unethical’ bull semen sale
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Monday October 16, 2023 06:00
According to a Savingram by Permanent secretary to the President dated October 12, Masisi will on Monday travel with an entourage of high elites that include ministers, assistant ministers and as well as senior officials who attend Cabinet meetings to Ramatlabama Artificial Insemination and Training Centre where they will hold their next cabinet meeting.
Besides the cabinet meeting, the entourage will also get the ‘preferential’ opportunity to purchase bull semen which will be sold at the Artificial Insemination and Training Centre.
The savingram says all Cabinet members, with exception of those who may be invited to travel with the president will board special buses from the office of the President.
“The buses will depart OP at 7am on Monday morning. The ministers and assistant ministers as well as senior officials who attend cabinet are expected to bring along own liquid nitrogen tanks for purposes of storing bull semen which will be sold to them at the Artificial insemination Centre,” read the savingram in part.
This decision to give Masisi and his cabinet members the opportunity to buy the bulls’ semen has been criticised by the country’s main opposition parties.
Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) spokesperson Moeti Mohwasa has described the scenario as ethically and morally wrong on a number of fronts.
“When we first saw this we checked the date thinking that this was April Fool’s Day. This is so unbelievable, shocking, ethically and morally wrong on a number of fronts. Firstly the government is deliberately choosing a farm where the semen is made available so that they can use official time to do private business. Secondly, government transport and other resources are used to facilitate a purely self enrichment exercise by the Executive,” Mohwasa said.
Furthermore, Mohwasa said the sale is discriminatory as it is not being opened to others but to the Executive only. He described the whole exercise is nothing but legitimised and institutionalised looting.
“The BDP government has no conscience left in it to even pick this up. The cabinet and senior officials are enjoying subsidies and preferential treatment that is not extended to the rest of the nation. It is therefore not by accident that the government chose this venue,” he added.
Botswana Congress Party (BCP) president Dumelang Saleshando said they are dismayed although not surprised by the Cabinet to prioritise its interests ahead of the interests of the public. Saleshando told Mmegi that this is because Masisi has on numerous occasions used his position of authority to enrich himself and members of his family alleging examples of Banyana Farms and tenders allocated to the President's siblings.
'Monday cabinet meeting of Ministers reporting for duty with liquid nitrogen tanks will be a further demonstration that under Masisi, positions of leadership are about personal benefits and wealth accumulation. There are no servant leadership values under the present leadership,' Saleshando said.
The BCP further said this move affirms what it has said from the beginning, that these bulls will mostly benefit elites. 'We never imagined that members of cabinet will take positions at the front of the queue and at the urging and facilitation of the President. This raises the question, what motivated cabinet to meet in Ramatlabama at considerable cost to the public? Was the opportunity to purchase semen not a factor?' asked the party's Secretary for Economic Affairs Sennye Obuseng.
Obuseng said government is yet to communicate its plans for meaningfully extending the benefits of these expensively acquired bulls to smallholder farmers, for whom the cost of accessing semen liquid nitrogen cans, travel to Ramatlabana, and on farm artificial insemination infrastructure, equipment and expertise - is prohibitive. Additionally, the BCP said these bulls and their semen mean nothing to the millions of Batswana who are failed by the collapsed public education and public health systems.
In May this year, the country received 162 live breed cattle from the state of Texas in the United States of America which cost government P25 million. The initiative attracted divided opinion from members of the public and across the political divide as some applauded it while others called it an imprudent investment.