Unity Dow

Wetsho,

This Kgotla Meetings is being called following months of social media posts and shares, texts, calls and meetings (both physical and virtual, amongst and from cattle and beef industry leaders and stakeholders,

Are you a farmer, a beef producer or a stakeholder in the industry?

Are you a member of the public interested in listening and learning about the now, tomorrow and future of this critical industry?

Then this meeting is for you.

Gatwe ka e tlhoka ka tlhoka boroko, ka nna nayo ka nna ka bo tlhoka.

E re tlhokisa boroko, kgomo, ka sone sebaka se.

The government's economic policy is anchored on private sector leadership.

Time to lead.

Kana jang?

Wetsho,

About a month ago I started to receive calls and texts from beef producers, grain producers, stakeholders in the agriculture inndustry and the general public: the common thread? Government's unbending politics and policies in response to the problems in the agriculture sector. "The sector is on its knees", is the refrain.

Because I have taken the time to listen to cattle farmers in virtual and in person meetings as well as through phone calls and texts expenses, in this post I limit my contribution to the beef production/cattle farming sector.

I promise to engage further with other sectors in the coming months.

Thirty Truths:

1. There are between 30,000 and 35,000 farms that employ between 160,000 -180,000 people in Botswana:
2. There are between 350 to 1000 people employed by the Botswana Meat Commission.
3. Beef producers are forced to sell live cattle to the BMC at prices set by the government.
4. The BMC does not always pay on time and it doesn't pay market prices.
5. The beef producer sells to BMC at about P52/kg and the BMC sells to the EU at about P100/kg.
6. The BMC is subsidized by farmers; farmers who invest own resources (loans and pensions), carving roads in rough terrains, away from resources enjoyed by other businesses.
7. The BMC is perpetually cash strapped and is routinely bailed out by cash injections from the state purse; your purse.
8. Last year, the BMC classified pre- payments from the EU as profit! If the BMC had indeed made profit, it would have paid the Ngamiland farmers on time.
9. The BMC's books have not been audited since 2021.
10. The BMC is a failed and failing State Owned Enterprise kept afloat by the sweat of farmers and by the public purse (with the current economic situation, by loans!).
12. The small cattle post farmer does not benefit from the continued state protection of the BMC as trucking cattle to the BMC is prohibitingly expensive.
13. In 2019, the government passed the Botswana Meat Commission (Transition) Act, the purpose of which was to liberalise the cattle industry and to allow you and I to buy shares in the BMC. The Minister has not commenced the Act yet.
14. The Minister is refusing or declining to allow live exports of cattle.
15. Live export of cattle would bring in more than P2.5billion into the economy.
16. South Africa is ready and willing to buy Botswana's cattle TODAY. Only Minister can make it possible.
17. Even if the BMC was to open today to slaughter, it does not have the capacity to absorb all the slaughter-ready cattle.
18. Keeping cattle in feed lots for 9 months, especially vaccinated cattle, is irrational, unreasonable and expensive and may actually amount to cruelty to animals.
19. Not allowing live exports under current circumstances means zero income to farmers, layoffs in the industry, over-feeding in feedlots and general aging of cattle. It means bankruptcy!
20. Allowing live exports will lead to the injection into an ailing economy.
21. When / If, the BMC finally opens, farmers will have to sell pregnant cows!
22. The BMC is now competing with butcheries by selling beef in-country. They choke farmers at the border and choke the local butcher as well.
23. The continued protection of the BMC through maintaining as a monopoly, price-setting and expansion into local retail is destroying the beef industry and is directly responsible for the low salaries of farm workers.
25. Namibia is beating us hands down; she even used our quota to supply the BMC.
26. South Africa is getting new markets even as it's affected by FMD.
27. The FMD situation has exercebeted an already bad crisis, but the problem is not new. The management of FMD though is destroying lifehoods.
28. El nino will put the last nail on the farmer's coffin.
29. Not trading for 9 monthe is an existential thread for many farmers. Expect lay offs, unpaid loans, over stocking, bankruptcy and sadly mental health issues.
30. The national herd (and I guess the farmers are the herders - badisa ba dikgomo tsa sechaba) will continue to decline unless and until the industry is de-linked from an ailing, money-sucking State Owned Enterprise.

The Minister can read this and decide to either ignore it as the ramblings of a mad opposition politician or he can pause and call his advisors and listen. If they have the courage, they will tell him the truth. The are telling us what they really think.

Let me let him in on what is whispered by his staff, farmers and the general public:

"Botswana does not have an FMD problem, it has a Three-Vets Problem".

It's time the government read the many many many reports, letters and minutes detailing how the cattle industry can be saved and grown.

At a time when we are living on borrowed money, surely we should be saving the only industry that has the potential to save us in the short, medium and long runs?

Kana jang?

UD

Wetsho,

Kgang si!

Kana jang?

Wetsho,

Malatsi a ntse a a feta.

Let's meet at Matshabe Park, Mochudi.

Kana jang?

Wetsho,

Ga ke itse wena how you plan to eat independence... Nna ntlaa be ke le fa!

Tlhe wetsho re etele! Thaba e tlaa be e duma...

O ska tshoga o utlwa gotwe Matshabe... The last witch to be tossed into the cave was seen carrying a bundle of wood on her head a few days later... Le wena o tlaa safaefa ...Gatwe. Ka re gatwe...

What I do know is that the hills will be ringing with the sound of music.

O e tla akere?

Gofa a re waa go ngalla ga o sa tle. Wa re Gofa ke mang? Waitse ga o itse dilo ka bontsi!

Ga re motho a nne a itlhokomolosa matsapa a botshelo two minutes.

Kana kana jang?

Wetsho,

Have you ever wondered how private conversations became political fodder in 2019?

Who had the technical know how, power, opportunity and interest to record the Motti/Boko telephone conversation in 2019?

Who is panicking now, as his breaking into private conversations ga go mo eme pila now ka 2026?

Koo re ga a utlwa these trending illegally recorded conversations, o kare a ka re lefatshe fatoga ke tsene.

Is he looking for new targets to record? Be afraid! Be very afraid!

Tota molato, ke wa yo o iponeng a tsena mo a private telephone call between a political candidate and his sponsor a bo a gasa. Jaanong he is threatening people gore ba seka posta. The convo has been trending for years! What has happened recently that is now justifying attempts to shut it down?

A a ipobole a rapele, a tlogele go re kgerisa; sebe, molato le phoso ke tsa gagwe.

Kana jang?

Wetsho,

The two doctors and the water utilities employee behind the latest Happy Omang post o kare ba tlaa ntella thata. They should celebrate the Block 7 drama without using my name.

Ba reyeng ba folleleng matlhoo ba bine, ba tswe mo go nna.

I may be an MP but I have not been consulted or informed about any aspects of this project. Ke utlwa ka di radio le di tv jaaka Motswana mongwe le mongwe.

I, like many Batswana went to Block 7 to check out the truth about this drama.

Ke kopa Happy Omang a itumelle ko kgakala kwa.

Gape, ke gakolla the power behind the two doctors and the water utilities employee that France Museveni may have been a brutish and cruel enterprise, but it did not succeed in it's overall mission. Why do you think your enterprise will be any different?

Batswana ga se dimatla, they don't need a bunch of cowards hiding behind a pseudo to tell them what to think.

Kana jang?

Wetsho,

Barui ba lela selelo se se botlhoko, sa namane e swetswe, ke maayo...

I was talking to a cattle farmer last night and the call continued this morning. Her words reminded me of an old song which had the lines:

Ke lela ke nosi / I am crying alone.
Ke le lela selelo se se botlhoko / I am crying a painful cry.
Sa name e swetswe ke mmayo /The cry of a calf that has lost its mother.

Cattle farmers have reached breaking point. They just can't survive if the current policy environment does not change.

They need clarity on what they can expect next but they know that repairing yet another meter of fence is not the whole answer.

They are watching South Africa, Namibia..they watched as Brazilian cattle were introduced into Zone 11... They read press releases about new markets...

Additional zones were closed on Friday. Trucks with cattle we're on the roads with permits issued. No clarity. No obvious end in sight.

They are entitled to know the government's end game.

Yare di zone di tswalwa, skolo sa bulwa ko Block 7. Ke tswa go se bona. Wena o ya go se bona leng, wa ga mma?

Gone nne e e se gore e re Tautona a fetsa fa Block 7 a bue sengwe le barui?

Kana jang?