Monkagedi Gaotlhobogwe
28 November 2008
When a team of Germans from the reputable Munich-based company, G&D, pitched up at the Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs to sign the P120 million e-passport and border control system deal, they were accompanied by a Motswana.
That man was Monametsi Kalayamotho, a Gaborone socialite, who also owns an IT company, Blocks IT, situated at Block 8 Industrial.
Kalayamotho, whose company is currently doing computer maintenance work for the Ministry of Science, Communications and Technology and the private sector, says he is a local partner in the multi-million Pula deal, although he does not like discussing his "cut" in the deal.
"I don't want to go into those details now, just say we are the local partner," he said.
"As a local partner, Blocks IT is doing all support maintenance. We are part of the implementation team, and we also act as G&D's representation locally. It is more to empower us, they train us in specialised support and printing," Kalayamotho said.
Kalayamotho says in fact his company invited G&D to partner with them when they made the tender. "We approached G&D to come to Botswana to partner us. But one of the requirements of the tender was that the lead contractor should be the owners of the technology. We are very excited to be part of a significant job like this one. We will learn a lot. The ultimate thing is to be empowered with the new technology, so that at the end we are just as powerful as G&D," Kalayamotho added.
Kalayamotho's company even threw a cocktail party at Phakalane on Monday this week as part of the ground-breaking ceremony.
Kalayamotho says he is looking beyond just the short-term benefits of the partnership with G&D. "This technology is the first in Africa. We want to train our people so that we can export skills across the region and the continent as a whole, as no other country in Africa has e-passports at the moment," said Monametsi.
"e-passports have become a standard requirement all over the world," he said at the cocktail.
Back in 2003, Kalayamotho and his then partner, Itseng Kwelagobe, won a P40 million tender to supply machine-readable passports. But the award came to naught, when AST computers challenged the award at the High Court and won. But the challengers also lost the award when the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board(PPADB) successfully appealed the High Court decision.
"It was a different project altogether. I'm no longer with that company any more. I now run my own IT company," says Kalayamotho.
Now working with a company that is also manufacturing Euro notes, among the one hundred currencies they make around the world, Kalayamotho hopes one day the currency making skills will be in Botswana.
"It would be nice if we could be empowered to that level because then we could bid against the two companies that have been manufacturing the Pula currency since independence," says the smiling entrepreneur.
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