In the Weekend Post of the 12th-17th January 2014, there appeared story entitled” “Americans Propose P1.6 Billion BMC Takeover.”
The story is unfortunate as at the moment there seems to be nobody who is accredited with releasing the said story neither are the principals of the African Farm Lands owning up to the story . It is even more worrying that although the paper claims the proposals were made to the Minister of Agriculture, Hon. Christian De Graaf it also admits that they have not talked to the Minister to confirm the story. Ironically, the said paper did not even bother to confirm the story with the Advisors of the Minister, such as the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture nor did they bother to consult BMC which is the subject of the story.
One therefore is left with conclusion that the story is a malicious attempt from whoever is the SOURCE to confuse the BMC stakeholders including Farmers on which BMC heavily relies on . As the story cannot be accredited to any credible source and there was never any attempt to confirm the authencity of it, therefore it should be dismissed as hearsay and as attempts by those worried by the turnaround that is taking place at BMC to derail those efforts .
However, BMC has established workable and supportive communications with Farmers, as a result farmers must continue contributing to the arrival of BMC as they did throughout 2013 with very positive results. If there are any changes that are due affecting the status of BMC farmers would be the first to know, just as they have been on the BMC monopoly issue. We at BMC want to repeat and put on record once again, that BMC is a cooperative for Farmers, any changes that will be made will include Farmers and their meaningful contribution sought. BMC has put in motion processes to value the BMC business to be able to know the true value of the business and it would not be lured into thump suck values however substantial they may seem.
We wish also to assure all investors from Europe, Africa, Israel and elsewhere that have been in discussion with BMC that a proper transparent and credible process will be put in place once the value of the business has been ascertained with all stakeholders on board.
The said article should not in any trouble or confuse all BMC stakeholders. We once again wish to assure everybody that BMC is well and alive and progressing steadily towards recovery.
Dr. Akolang Tombale
Chief Executive Officer of Botswana Meat Commission