Competition Authority hosts Seconds National Stakeholders Conference

The Competition Authority and the Competition Commission held the second National Stakeholders Conference in Gaborone on March 15th at the Gaborone e International Convention Centre. The Conference held under the theme, ‘Towards a Culture of Fair Competition’ was an effort by the two bodies to bring stakeholders under one roof in order to interact with each other, so as to appreciate and discuss issues relating competition and promote compliance to the Competition Act.

The conference attracted participants from the business community, academia, labour, politicians, government departments and other disciplines. The Conference was officially opened by the honourable minister of trade and industry Ms Dorcus Makgato-Malesu and the chairman of the Competition Commission Dr Zein Kebonang welcomed the participants to the conference. In her address, the minister said Batswana need to change their mindset when it comes to doing business and also be aware that the government is not obliged to secure local product even if they are not competitive.

The minister also said that Batswana should see their country as land surrounded as opposed to landlocked as this seems to be a barrier that locked the mind. She said calling Botswana a land surrounded country would open the mind to possibilities around us. Giving the keynote address, Head of Section - Trade, Politics, Press and Information European Union Delegation to Botswana and SADC, Dr. Jochen Pöttgen said that Markets are created and managed by human beings and human nature has a tendency to manipulate things to its personal benefit and therefore markets are hardly ever perfect.

He said that is why, especially in globalised world, “there is need for supervising authorities to ensure sure that the conditions of fair competition are met, to defend players on the market and – most importantly and ultimately – to protect the consumers.” In his presentation, the Chief Executive Officer of the Competition Authority Mr Thula Kaira the Authority has embarked on one-on-one meetings with all ministries to share on how competition policy is an important ingredient in the national economic development process in order to encourage the stakeholders to have faith in competition policy in order to implement it with a passion.

Director of Mergers and Monopolies Ms Magdeline Gabaraane also gave stakeholders a presentation on regulation of mergers and acquisitions and Chairman of the Competition Commission Technical Committee, Tendekani Malebeswa presented on the Competition Commission rules and regulations.

Other presenters included Barney Masupe- Senior Assitant Director of Public Education at DCEC, Tshepo Sayed- economist at PPADB, Dr. Selinah Peters- National Executive Coordinator for Botswana Consumer Centre for Advocacy and Research Orientation and Mr Tebogo Moipolai of the Law Society of Botswana.