Archive for April 21st, 2008
source: Mmegi
STAFF WRITER
The Botswana Export Development and Investment Authority (BEDIA) will next week host a delegation of eleven Indian investors here on a mission to explore potential investment opportunities in the glass, leather and coal manufacturing industries.
BEDIA Public Relations Officer, Kungo Lentswe says the delegation will hold a seminar on Monday and thereafter meet one-on-one with local investors until Thursday.
“They are coming to explore possibilities like setting up their factories here or [continue reading]
source: International Herald Tribune
The New York Times
ALONG THE SOUTH AFRICA/ZIMBABWE BORDER: Sarah Ngewerume was driven to the river by despair.
She said she had seen gangs loyal to the longtime president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, beating people – some to death – in the dusty roads of her village. She said Mugabe loyalists were sweeping the countryside with chunks of wood in their hands, demanding to see party identification cards and methodically hunting down opposition supporters.
“It was terrifying,” said Ngewerume, a 49-year-old former shopkeeper.
Last week she waded across the Limpopo River, bribed a man fixing a border fence on the other side and slipped into a nearby South African farm.
She was among the latest desperate arrivals in what the biggest daily newspaper in South Africa is now calling “Mugabe’s Tsunami” – a wave of more than 1,000 people every day who are fleeing Zimbabwe across the Limpopo to escape into South Africa.
When a shallow, glassy river and a few coils of razor wire are the only things separating one of Africa’s most [continue reading]
source: News24
21/04/2008 14:12 – (SA)
Cape Town – The recount in a number of constituencies in Zimbabwe is futile because ballot boxes have been tampered with, says a South African member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) observer team.
“From what I have seen and experienced in Zimbabwe over the past three days, it is clear that the process of recounting the contested wards from the recent elections is fatally flawed,” Democratic Alliance MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard said on Monday.
The process had been marred by delays, administrative problems and the clear political intent of blaming the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for all the problems associated with the recount.
“Of particular concern was the evidence of ballot box tampering that I witnessed personally, which points to a concerted effort to rig the election results in order to bring about a Mugabe ‘victory’,” she said in a statement.
Broken seals on ballot boxes
Evidence supporting this view included repeated miscommunication of venue addresses, resulting in party agents and [continue reading]
source: Mmegi
WANETSHA MOSINYI
STAFF WRITER
Botswana Stock Exchange-listed group Chobe Holdings Limited has further increased its footprint in the tourism sector by its recent acquisition of Ker and Downey Botswana and The Bookings Company.
In a statement on Tuesday, the Group said subsequent to a shareholders meeting on April 10, the two companies are now wholly owned subsidiaries of Chobe Holdings Limited.
The 20 857 092 ordinary shares issued in satisfaction of the respective purchase considerations were listed on the BSE, the statement said. Chobe Holdings offers luxury tourist accommodation in a total of eight lodges situated in the Chobe National Park, in the Okavango Delta, and in Namibia. The Group also operates tourist transfers to its own lodges and third party sites using its own fleet of aircraft and its property near Maun Airport as an operational base.
The newly acquired entity Ker and Downey also operates in the luxury tourist trade, with the main income stream being generated [continue reading]
source: Sunday Standard
by Philimon Molaodi
20.04.2008 10:13:29 A
Economic pointers do not appear rosy this year. Some of the spikes afflicting the global village this year are high food prices, sky rocketing fuel costs, financial crisis, and all time high inflation. These economic variables saw world economic bodies, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Trade Organisation (WTO), reviewing this year’s global economic growth downwards. At least in some parts of the world, rising food prices have already caused social instability. The world’s largest economy – United States of America – is said to be in a “mild recession”.
In light of the above, analysts were these week cautious on whether the domestic economy would emerge resilient or would equally spiral downwards.
“When you look at it at a macro level, there is [continue reading]
source: Mmegi
WANETSHA MOSINYI
STAFF WRITER
Because of limitations hampering its growth, the Botswana International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) has engaged its principals to review the IFSC legislation, says IFSC chief executive Alan Boshwaen.
“Our priority is to see the IFSC legislation improved so that it unlocks value for us to lure more companies to domicile here and to pursue other long-term strategies,” Boshwaen told Business Week in an interview.
If the legislation is improved, the IFSC will be able to attract more international funds and focused funds such as diamond financing. Boshwaen says it has become clear from their efforts to lure companies to domicile in Botswana that the cost and time of doing business in the country need to be [continue reading]
source: Sunday Standard
by Prof Malema
20.04.2008 10:15:01 A
Evanos Casella, the European Commission chief negotiator in the ongoing SADC- EU economic partnership agreement, poured praises on Botswana for showing strong leadership ahead of the second round of negations which start next month.
The EU and its trading partners from the Africa Caribbean and Pacific countries are engaged in marathon negotiations aimed at formalizing their trade agreement to comply with the Geneva-based World Trade Organisation.
The new development will replace the old trade agreement which guaranteed the 78 poor ACP countries access to the EU markets without any reciprocity. Further, the asymmetric agreement will ensure that goods from ACP countries enter the EU markets duty free.
“Botswana has shown strong leadership in these negotiations. It is one of the first countries from [continue reading]
LONDON, Apr. 21, 2008 (Thomson Financial delivered by Newstex) — Albidon Ltd. said it has signed a joint venture agreement with Iamgold (NYSE:IAG) for the exploration of nickel and other metals at projects on the Maitengwe Greenstone Belt in eastern Botswana.
Under the terms of the agreement, Albidon may earn up to an 80 percent interest in the projects through funding exploration and development activities.
The company said that expenditure of $75,000 within 12 months will enable it to maintain the option to earn a farm-in interest in the tenements. Additional expenditure of $325,000 within 3 years will earn it a 50 percent farm-in interest.
If Iamgold elects not to [continue reading]
source: Mmegi
STAFF WRITER
Government has formed a special cabinet committee to oversee the implementation of projects and service delivery. Vice President Mompati Merafhe chairs the committee. Though Coordinator of the Government Communications and Information Service Dr Jeff Ramsay could not confirm whether the committee has met, he said there is progress and things are moving quickly.
Already, there is information that the committee members have met and task forces have been given assignments on how to fast-track project implementation and service delivery.
Other cabinet committees will provide support mechanisms to ensure that the special committee delivers, government sources told Mmegi.
New president Ian Khama was responsible for government project implementation under [continue reading]
source: Sunday Standard
by Sunday Standard Reporter
20.04.2008 10:09:01 A
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Neo Moroka, has led a delegation to Accra, Ghana, to attend the twelfth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD Xll, that commences today (Sunday) to run until next Friday.
According to a press release, the UNCTED Ministerial Conference is the supreme policy making body that meets every four years. The theme of this year’s conference is “Addressing the challenges of the current stages of globalization and creating opportunities for Development”. This session is expected to [continue reading]
source: Mmegi
*TANONOKA JOSEPH WHANDE
South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki is at the very end of his second and last term in office. He has spent most of the past 10 years of his presidency engaged in Zimbabwean issues because of the crisis that has been festering in that country for a very long time.
Mbeki came up with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and set standards, among which was ‘good governance’. But NEPAD folded three days ago and Mbeki had to let go of a failure he created. But comedy continues as NEPAD is now to be run by the African Union.
Several years ago, Mbeki introduced ‘quiet diplomacy’ on Zimbabwe as a way of covering for Robert Mugabe’s excesses. He failed to [continue reading]
source: Sunday Standard
by Sunday Standard Reporter
20.04.2008 10:29:53 A
Once the darling of the investment community, Botswana Insurance Holdings Limited has had a rough time lately.
At the bottom of the crisis are accusations of conflict of interest.
As a result, the blue chip stock-listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange, has been forced to restructure its board and recruit a new set of independent nonexecutive directors following a disputed acquisition of shares in the company’s asset management wing by a consortium owned by directors and executive management team.
BIHL has had to implement an embarrassing reversal and clean up of its corporate governance following a P30 million purchase of shares by nonexecutive directors in BIFM (an asset management subsidiary.)
The group is also in the process of recruiting a [continue reading]
source: The Zimbabwe Guardian
Floyd Nkomo
Mon, 21 Apr 2008 05:48:00 +0000
OPPOSITION leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, said he will set camp in neighbouring Botswana for fear of being attacked or jailed if he returns to Zimbabwe.
“It is no use going back to Zimbabwe and become captive. Then you are not effective,” said Tsvangirai in an interview with the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail in Johannesburg, South Africa.
In the interview the opposition leader said he would return after gathering international support.
“I’m mobilising international support, I’m being effective in making sure that the issue of Zimbabwe remains on the international radar,” Tsvangirai said.
Tsvangirai said international support would [continue reading]
source: Sunday Standard
by Godfrey Ganetsang
20.04.2008 10:11:38 A
Botswana faces the possibility of a negative impact on its export earnings and economic growth if developed markets, like the United States and Europe, continue to post less than positive economic growth projections.
It emerged at a presentation by economic consultant Dr. Keith Jefferies that recent dips in global economic projections, especially in Japan, U.S. and Europe, are a threat to Botswana primarily because Botswana is an exporting country that is dependent on positive economic growth in developed countries which provide the markets for her goods.
Dr Keith Jefferies said that despite recent positive developments in Botswana’s economy, the country still faces a lot of challenges in [continue reading]
source: Reuters Africa
Sun 20 Apr 2008, 13:49 GMT
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE, April 20 (Reuters) – Zimbabwe announced a delay in the partial recount of its disputed March 29 election on Sunday, extending a political deadlock in which the opposition says 10 of its members have been killed and hundreds arrested.
The delay increased opposition concern about possible vote-rigging by veteran President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party. The recount could overturn the results of the parliamentary election, which showed ZANU-PF losing its majority to the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) for the first time.
Results of the parallel presidential election have not been released, but MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he [continue reading]
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- H.E. the President, Lt. Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama at the Botswana Democratic Party Leadership Forum/Pitso, Gaborone
- H.H, Lt. Gen. Mompati S. Merafhe, Mp, Vice President of the Republic of Botswana at a Fundraising Dinner for Mochudi Resource Centre for the Blind
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