- Pending disciplinary hearing, Sibisibi faces dismissal
- Sibisibi may have used his position as BALA president to influence awarding of tenders to Bluthorn
- Sibisisibi was director of Bluthorn when tenders were awarded
- He and his daughter Kelebogile were part of the “looters of Bluthorn”
After a breathtaking father-and-daughter operation, the real exposure of entities that ‘invested’ in Bluthorn Fund Managers is estimated to be in the region of P250 million.
The entities are mainly district councils and land boards but include trade unions and high net worth individuals. Everything seems to point to Geoffrey Sibisibi of the local authorities fame using his influence to string them along. Just after being subpoenaed by Master of the High Court and interrogated in connection with the missing hundreds of millions looted at Bluthorn Fund Managers, the Botswana Local Authorities Association (BALA) has decided to suspend its president, Geoffrey Sibisibi.
The Business Weekly & Review can reveal that local authorities met in Selibe-Phikwe last week to discuss the way forward with regard to the Bluthorn matter and to make a decision on what action to take against its now suspended president, Sibisibi. According to inside sources, after realising that the intention of the BALA Executive Committee was to suspend him pending disciplinary hearing, after which he may end up being fired, Sibisibi decided to attempt to dissolve the meeting and walk out of it.
Such a decision, it is said, was his way of strategically trying to block BALA from taking disciplinary action against him by using his then powers as president. It emerges that the meeting proceeded anyway, which led to him being suspended pending a disciplinary hearing, with BALA questioning his involvement in the Bluthorn scandal that cost local authorities hundreds of millions of pula. The Business Weekly & Review can confirm that Flora Mpetsane has been appointed Acting BALA President.
In an interview however, Mpetsane refused to confirm Sibisibi’s suspension and the reasons behind it. “It is still an internal matter we will get back to you,” she said. Contacted for comment on the matter, Sibisibi responded: “I have not received any letter from BALA executive committee, but yes, I know that such an issue exists because they previously asked me to step aside and clear my name. My position is that I have repeatedly informed them that I long quit Bluethorn. I have no case to answer, even before the courts of law. Where I was once asked to clarify certain issues was during the liquidation case. “
In Sibisibi’s view, the allegations against him are sponsored byhis political opponents. The Business Weekly & Review asked him if he had attended the Executive Committee meeting in Selebi-Phikwe. “Yes, I did but left because I was not happy with certain procedures which I felt were not being followed,” he answered. “But I did not just leave; I did so after dissolving the meeting. If they congregated or made such decisions to expel me after my departure, it would be unfortunate.”
Sibisibi is among Bluthorn directors currently being fingered and questioned about the missing pensioners’ funds. Theinterrogation of the directors and officers of the Bluthorn Fund Manager (BFM) Group and associated companies is in accordance with Section 431 of the Companies Act. The interrogation comes after liquidator Kopanang Thekisorecommended that an enquiry be conducted to collect evidence under oath from subpoenaed individuals and organisations. A forensic audit, Thekiso said, will also identify and track the flow of the funds.
Those on the list of subpoenas also include Sibisibi’s daughterKelebogile, majority shareholder Eune Engelbrecht, Shirley Kamodi, Joseph Botuna Mosimane,Joseph Batsalelwang, Alfred Mokone, Motlamedi Matome, Relebanye Magosi, Marthinus van de Merwe, and George Earl. Former Chairman of Kweneng District Council, Sibisibi, is one of the founding directors of BFM and associated companies. His daughter, Kelebogile, subsequently took over the directorship alongside Engelbrecht.
Sibisibi is believed to have been instrumental in convincing district councils to invest in what the liquidators have now described as a Ponzi scheme. Former minister Vincent Seretse is also listed as a founding director and shareholder. BFM has four minority shareholders of 10 percent each with the majority shareholding of 60 percent held by Blu ThornProcurement Solutions, which is 100 percent owned by B Thorn,B Thorn being held by Eugene Engelbrecht at 40 percent Kelebogile Sibisibi at40 percent. Engelbrecht, Sibisibi and van der Merwe jointly own all the shares in the holding company, B Thorn, which owns the majority of shares in BFM.
The then Statutory Manager, Peter Collins, described the companies as so closely related that transactions between them were the equivalent of brothers and sisters sitting at a family lunch table and passing money between themselves. While BFM was the recipient of all client/investor funds, instead of taking on the responsibility of abiding by the terms of its licence as a collective investment undertaking, investigations indicated the company ‘invested’ the funds in its own unlicensed family companies.
By subpoenaing and interrogating the directors and executive management, creditors of the down and out Bluthorn are actually gathering more evidence and preparing themselves to serve directors and shareholders personally with a writ of summons for them to personally settle what is due to creditors, failing whichthey will face criminal charges. Through their attorneys, creditors are questioning both the directors and the shareholders’ role in the mismanagement of Bluthorn. Their argument is that the directors were present at Board level when the creditors’ money was fleeced. Further, it is the shareholders of Bluthorn who benefitted from the ‘looting.’
This is so because the BFM shareholders were found to have been conducting “illegal banking activities” by loaning out money belonging to clients to an intricate web of their own companies and squandering it. The fatally insolvent Bluthorn is being liquidated after revelations that the shareholders siphoned offfunds amounting to approximately P230 million belonging to investors. Therefore, the attorneys are even determined to attach properties and assets belonging to the directors and shareholders, failing which they may face jail terms.
Further, the suspended Chairman of Botswana Association of Local Authorities (BALA) Geoffrey Sibisibi is believed to have been the brains behind the entire operation and to have influenced local authorities to invest in Bluthorn.
How Bluthorn directors cashed in
In its operations, Bluthorn Fund Managers (BFM) was found to have used a network of five primarily related parties in the BFM ‘family’ of companies. They are BluThorn Fund Managers (Pty) Ltd, BluThorn Procurement (Pty) Ltd, B. Thorn (Pty) Ltd, BluThorn Holdings (Pty) Ltd and Prime Employee Benefits (Pty) Ltd.
Bluthorn Fund Managers is owned 60 percent by Bluthorn Holdings (Pty) Ltd. Joseph Mosimane, Joseph Batsalelwang, Motlamedi Matome and Tiyedze Kamodi each owns 10 percent shares in the company. Bluthorn Holdings (Pty) Ltd is in turn owned 70 percent by B.Thorn (Pty) Ltd while the remaining 30 percent is held by Kelebogile Sibisibi, who is the daughter of former Kweneng District Council chairman Geoffery Sibisibi, now suspended BALA president. During his presidency at BALA, Sibisibi headed an organisation that affiliates all district councils in Botswana.
Eugene Engelbrecht owns 40 percent shares in B. Thorn (Pty) Ltd, Kelebogile Sibisibi another 40 percent while Henk J. van der Merwe owns the remaining 20 percent. The fifth company, Prime Employee Benefits (Pty) Ltd, is owned 100 percent by B. Thorn (Pty) Ltd. In essence, all these five companies that are interrelated to Bluthorn are owned by these seven individuals. Moreover, B. Thorn (Pty) Ltd owns 100 percent shares in Bluthorn Procurement Solutions (Pty) Ltd. The millions of pula exchanged between these companies were effectively transactions between fellow shareholders.
In then Statutory Manager Peter Collins’ report to NBFIRA, it is abundantly clear that from a shareholding perspective, the same Eugene Engelbrecht, Kelebogile Sibisibi and Henk J. van der Merwe jointly own all the shares in the real holding company, B.Thorn (Pty) Ltd, which owns the majority of shares in Bluthorn Fund Managers. In the report, Collins stated: “These parties are so closely related that transactions between them are the equivalent of brothers and sisters sitting at a family lunch table and passing money between themselves.”
How local authorities are exposed to Bluthorn
Sibisibi is said to have used his influence as president of BALA to get local authorities to invest in Bluthorn, a company that he has interests in. According to evidence seen by The Business Weekly & Review, Bluthorn has failed to pay Ghanzi District Council a total of P40 million that matured on 3 April 2020. The Southern District Council had also invested P10 million with Bluthorn. It matured on 8 January 2020. In addition, Malete Land Board and Hukuntsi Sub-District Council have not been paid their P4 million and P2 million respectively, which matured on 12 and 30 January 2020 respectively. Mahalapye Sub-District Council and South East South Sub-District Council have not received their P10 million each that matured on 3 February 2020 and 12 February 2020 respectively. A further P5 million due to Tlokweng Sub-District Council matured on 15 March 2020 but has not been paid. Letlhakeng Sub-District Council has not received its P15 million from Bluthorn, which was due on 16 March 2020.
In total, P96 million in cash, which matured between January and March 2020, has not been paid by Bluthorn to its eight clients, all of them district councils, sub-district councils and a land board. In addition to the P96 million matured ‘investments’ that is yet to be paid to district councils, there is a further P114.4 million held by Bluthorn that is yet to mature. The then Statutory Manager Collins has pointed out that if Bluthorn was unable to settle the P96 million in matured investments, the same challenge may recur with the much bigger sum that is yet to mature.
In actual fact, the reality is that Bluthorn does not have any liquid cash, which means that it does not have the P114.4 million which it supposedly holds on behalf of other clients. Among‘investments’ that have not yet matured is that of Botswana Institute of Development and Policy Analysis (BIDPA) which invested P3 million in Bluthorn. Botswana Sectors of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU) invested P16 million, Chibuku SACCOS over P1 million, while Tlokweng Land Board invested P10 million. CPM Architects invested P10 million with Bluthorn while Motswedi SACCOS invested over P5 million.
The rest of the investments are made by high net worth individuals and pensioners. In total, funds invested in Bluthorn that have not yet matured bulk up to P114.45 million. Subject to verification, Collins noted in the Statutory Manager’s report that the total amount outstanding to depositors is in excess of P220 000 000 (excluding interest). “Given the extraordinarily generous interest rates paid or promised to depositors by Bluthorn, I would expect the real exposure to be in the region of P250 million,” Collins wrote in his report.
Meanwhile, Sibisibi’s contract was due to end in September this year. This suspension further disqualifies him from being a member of several high level public bodies which he was a member by virtue of his BALA presidency. It is not yet clear on whether Sibisibi will challenge the suspension as he has repeatedly insisted that no clear grounds exist for his suspension or dismissal. Indications however are that this development may open another room for a fresh war still connected to the Bluthorn scandal.
