Meatco: Questions That Need Answers

When a hungry Namibian steals a cow, they are arrested for stock theft.

If found guilty, he or she is more than likely to be jailed for over 20 years.

Yet when a government business entity such as the Meat Corporation of Namibia (Meatco) loses more than 470 cattle in broad daylight, it becomes ‘business unusual’.

So far nobody has been held responsible despite those cattle obviously not arriving at the abattoir as scheduled.

After seemingly dragging its feet, Meatco announced mid-October that it had registered a criminal case with the police.

It also announced that the number of missing cattle could increase as forensic investigations continue.

Adding interest to the equation is that no legal business or commercial agreement was in place between Meatco and the accused feedlot owner(s) to legally receive, feed and take care of those animals.

Further, no board member(s), let alone the management, was fired or arrested in a case that amounts to negligence and incompetence of the highest order.

One senior staff member was suspended.

Otherwise, business appears to continue as if nothing significant happened.
 
THE BEEF

It seems the law is applied differently against private citizens who, out of hunger and desperation, ‘go the extra mile’ to feed themselves and their families, compared to white collar individuals who work for Meatco, which failed to protect the state from such an incident.

In fact, the disappearance of more than 470 cattle from illegal feedlots near Okahandja raises a lot more questions than meet the eye.

For instance, how long has this kind of incident been going on?

From late 2019, the company started requesting and receiving government bailouts.

From the point of view of Meatco having been a going concern, it does not make any business sense.

Apart from it being the largest abattoir for the domestic market in terms of beef products, it exports a significant volume of beef to South Africa, and has lucrative export quotas to, among others, Norway and China.

Why does it have to be constantly bailed out by its main shareholder without questions being asked.

How is it that an illegal operation that involved transporting and transferring more than 470 cattle wasn’t detected by the police force or the relevant authorities?

It took the arrest of a drug dealer who stumbled on a situation that might have been happening for years for all we know – diverting cattle bought by Meatco from auctions without a trace.

BAILOUT BLUES

This revelation could hold serious consequences: that cattle bought by Meatco over a number of years haven’t reached its abattoir in Windhoek to be slaughtered and sold domestically, and to be exported regionally and internationally.

As a result, it could have led to a significant shortfall in revenue.

Could this be why management, at short notice, had to plead for government bailouts?

Since 2020, the Namibian government has blindly bailed out Meatco.

So far it has given them more than N$800 million to apparently pay debt obligations it has been unable to meet.

Can this be attributed to a lack of critical oversight of its operations?

A detailed forensic audit covering at least seven years will need to be conducted to get to the root cause of these mishaps at the once prosperous government business entity.

Those implicated need to be held to account.

• Pendapala Hangala believes in the potential of Namibians to achieve great things for themselves if given the chance. He writes in his personal capacity.

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