Icons of Botswana

| Monday August 6, 2012 00:00

The year after Mpuchane retired he stepped into the role of Executive Director, overseeing Builders World operations. At that time, the first branch of Builders World in Gaborone, was operational and Trade World was under construction. Mpuchane is part owner of the company that owns the property which Builders World and Trade World rent. He explained that each branch is separately incorporated to allow the person running it to be a shareholder 'in order to create a sense of ownership'.

The business has grown from two stores in 1989 to a network of stores across the nation. It is one of the largest such businesses wholly owned by Batswana and though Mpuchane would not confirm the exact figure, the Group generates an estimated turnover of over P1 billion.

Mpuchane is director of over 25 companies, most of which are within the World Group of Companies. With a different group of Batswana, he is also involved in an investment company, which owns 50 percent of an asset management company. The same holding company has 25 percent shares in Botswana Insurance Company (BIC), a major insurance operator in the country. Mpuchane is also involved in a consortium of 10 citizen-owned companies dubbed Smart Partnership (Pty) Limited for which he is the Director and Chairman. Each one of the companies is owned by anywhere between two and 20 people. 'The only criterion is that the company must be owned by Batswana,' says Mpuchane. All together there are about 100 people involved in the project. Smart Partnership has won the development rights to a nine-hectare piece of land in the Gaborone CBD and is currently in the process of developing construction plans. The envisioned structure will be a mixed development consisting of retail, office and residential space.

However, Mpuchane's plans for the future extend beyond aggressive business expansion. 'I have things that I would like to do that I have not been able to do. I've been doing what I needed to do to get to where I am but there are other things that I would like to do.' Mpuchane dreams of establishing a non-profit organisation dedicated to developing people,  through assisting their organisations to grow or educating them about their rights and responsibilities as citizens. 'It will deal with governance issues. I would like to be involved in that because I believe that life is not all about making money you also need the fulfilment that comes with working with other people.We need to assist our young entrepreneurs,' says Mpuchane. 'Some of them are very bright but they have a completely misguided view of how to run a business. I start a business and think I'll be making millions. Sometimes, we drive our own businesses into the ground because I sell a service or product, then I take the money and to me, it's like profit. I forget that I have creditors, employees and loans to  pay. I take that money and buy luxuries.'

Another important concern is to develop what he sees as the country's short institutional memory. 'We don't have much of a memory of our recent past,' he says. 'People don't know little background things about the past and as a result, they cannot interpret the events of today. They lack context because they don't understand the historical background. I listen to radio conversations sometimes and I hear elementary mistakes from people who are supposed to be informing the nation. I get very concerned.' One of the things that he has done to contribute to this endeavour is to become a patron for the Botswana chapter of Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). 'I don't condemn journalists,' says Mpuchane, 'I want to assist them.'

The World Group has made contributions to organisations like the BNSC, the BFA, city and district councils, schools and a variety of community organisations. He is a member of the board of trustees for Tachila Nature Reserve and honorary consul for Finland in Botswana. This year, Mpuchane celebrates 40 years of marriage to his wife, Sesae Felicity Mpuchane, a retired professor of Microbiology who taught at the UB for over 30 years. His daughter is a lawyer at Debswana. His eldest son is IT manager for World Group and his youngest son is one of the managers of Builder's World, Gaborone.