The Botswana Development Corporation: Divestiture policy and citizen participation in the private sector

The Botswana Development Corporation, Botswana's most important agency for industrial and commercial development, assists in the development of viable businesses, with the emphasis on profit‐making and earning acceptable returns on investment. Its policy is to divest from mature and successful ventures, ‐with the aim of raising capital for future investment, encouraging diversification and competition, and promoting citizen participation in private business ventures. The article considers the implementation of the policy with regard to two brewery companies. Its assessment is that the brewery divestments have had a positive but limited effect on economic participation by citizens and it concludes by suggesting policy and strategy reforms that would ensure sustainable private sector development.

Notes

Senior Lecturer, Political and Administrative Studies, University of Botswana. The author would like to thank the management of the Botswana Development Corporation and the Sechaba Brewery Holdings for all their assistance. All opinions are, however, those of the author.