End of the road for Fengyue Glass Project

Bame Piet | Sunday December 8, 2013 20:13

 

Hundreds of kilometres away south of here, in an old town of Lobatse, the High Court has intervened to save, or bring to an end what was going to be yet another landmark structure in this emerging centre. 

The Lobatse High Court appointed Nigel Dickson-Warren of KPMG accounting firm as liquidator for the Palapye Fengyue project last Friday, an attorney at Armstrongs Attorneys, Sipho Ziga, has confirmed. 

The project was a joint venture between Botswana Development Corporation (BDC) and Fengyue Glass Manufacturing Company of China.

“It is true the court has granted liquidation and it is upon the liquidator to see what to do with the project,” Ziga said yesterday. Armstrongs petitioned the court recently on instructions of BDC to have the company liquidated, despite earlier denials that the project had collapsed.

The liquidation comes amid reports of disappearance of the Chinese partner in the project and allegations that the company had put demands before BDC for it to continue as a partner, something which BDC reportedly rejected. Earlier this year, BDC insisted that it was close to securing a partner for the project in which government spent approximately P350 million.

After waiting for three weeks for a questionnaire Mmegi sent to BDC, the response last Thursday was brief and straight to the point: “Fengyue Glass Project has been placed under liquidation. Effectively, the project is now not within BDC’s control. We therefore cannot discuss its matters. I hope you find the response satisfactory,” said Acting Corporate Communications and Public Relations Manager, Boitshwarelo Lebang.

Efforts to get a comment from Dickson-Warren were futile at time of going to press, as he was said to be in meetings.

But news of the liquidation came as a “shock” to the Member of Parliament for Palapye, Moiseraele Goya, who said he only learned about the latest developments from newspapers. The company was to produce an estimated 350 jobs for the people of Palapye and surrounding villages.

 “It came to me as a shocker,” said Goya. “I was abroad and learned from newspapers that the company was being liquidated. This is despite the fact that on April 22 this year, BDC management went with me to address a kgotla meeting to tell the people of Palapye that they were going to resuscitate the project. Now when the project fails, they do not do the same consultation.”

He was of the view that it would not be proper for him to comment on the issue until he had met with BDC management on why the same consultation was not done when the decision to liquidate the glass project was reached. Goya added that he had only returned home last Thursday after being out of the country for weeks and was yet to meet BDC management on the matter.

The liquidation comes a year after a parliamentary committee comprising Abram Kesupile, Mephato Reatile, Gilson Saleshando, Charles Tibone, Tawana Moremi, Olebile Gaborone and Tshekedi Khama presented its findings to Parliament.

The committee was appointed in December 2011 following a motion by the MP for Odirile Motlhale for the House to investigate allegations of maladministration, financial embezzlement and corruption related to the project.

Some cabinet members tried to block the investigation, saying the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crimes was already investigating the matter and that there was no need for a parallel investigation. Nevertheless, the House resolved to investigate and the findings were shocking.

Among the committee’s recommendations were that DCEC and other security organs should investigate further, with the aim of prosecuting suspected perpetrators, most of whom were in the management of the BDC. Witnesses were called to testify before the committee, making shocking revelations against BDC management and the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning.

At some point, the Minister of Finance Kenneth Matambo threatened to sue Parliament for defamation. BDC was subsequently moved to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

 Speaking to Mmegi  just before commencement of the ongoing Parliament session, the Minister of Trade and Industry Dorcas Magatho-Malesu said she would update Parliament on the status of the project before addressing journalists. She is yet to do that. However, to some people of this town, it is business as usual, as though the project was not going to benefit them. A street vendor here, Tebogo Busang, who saw the project come up, never bothered to know what it was all about since she was busy selling sweets at her tuckshop.

“I was working for an Indian man but I could not do much with the pittance he paid me,” Busang says. “I started my tuckshop in 2007 and my life has been on track ever since. I don’t find myself in debt any more, I can buy food and clothing for my children. I don’t see myself working for these Chinese or Indians any more because they pay peanuts.”

She saw structures go up, whatever they were about, and come to a halt. She never bothered to enquire what was going on since it was unlikely that the project would change her life in any way.  “I am done with looking for a job,” she pronounces. “Thus I do not care what the structures were for or who owned them.”

And then in objection: Lona le ka ya go tsaya MaChaena?” Busang cannot hide her disappointment upon learning that the company was a joint venture between BDC and a Chinese partner.

For 21-year-old Junior Certificate holder, Chinzi Keinametswe, street vending is the way to go and she has also never bothered to enquire what was going on just across the road. She became a vendor near Caltex filling station recently.

There are goods, supposedly worth millions of pula, covered in tarpaulin all over the fenced up compound, but the police say they have not received any reports of theft.

“There was only one incident in which a container was transported to Mahalapye and it was returned after the owners complained. It turned out that the Chinese had lent it to their compatriots in Mahalapye,” said the Commander of Palapye Police Station, Maruping.

The compound is under the care of a private security firm.

 

Unanswered Questions

Who were the auditors of this project?

Who were the legal advisors of BDC from the time of conception to the time the project collapsed? What happened to millions that were unaccounted for?