BTA Management - About BTA - Botswana Telecommunications Authority

The Minister for Science, Communications and Technology appoint all five members of the board. The Telecommunications Act establishes that the Minister will appoint:

one person responsible for finance,
one person responsible for commerce,
one person to "represent the business community" and
one person to "represent the domestic users of telecommunication services."

The First founding Five-member BTA BOARD was established on 20 December 1996 in accordance with the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Under the Act, the Chief Executive must possess "such experience and training as the Minister may prescribe or approve" and must demonstrate "that he is competent to carry out the functions of the Authority.

The board oversees BTA functions and approves decisions related to policy and regulation, but takes no decisions on the day-to-day management of BTA. For example, it was the BTA board--with the help of external experts and the advice of BTA senior officials--that awarded the first two GSM licenses and likewise, BTA's first public consultation document was brought to the board for its approval prior to being released.

In addition, the board approves BTA's annual budget and any additional expenditure of a significant nature not included in the annual budget. The board also provides guidance to BTA, for example on staff training and pensions. Although the board is responsible for these decisions, it relies heavily on the expertise of BTA staff in making its decisions.

Dr. John Mothibi
BTA Board Chairman

Dr. John Mothibi was first appointed BTA Board member on 1 April 2002 and later as BTA Board Chairperson on 1 April 2005. He joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Botswana (formerly Botswana Polytechnic) in 1989 where he worked as a Lecturer and specialises in Engineering Management.

In 1989 he attained a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Nova Scotia, Canada. He attained his Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in Project Management in 1992 from the University of Dundee, United Kingdom. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at University of Capetown, with a thesis titled " A Pragmatic-Evolotionary Based Systems Approach for Science and Technology Policy Formulation for Sustanable Development: with an application to Botswana." The thesis explored the filed of policy formulation of Science and technology at national level for sustanable development and argued for the use of the systems approach policy as opposed to the mechanisitic approach.

Dr. John Mothibi's main areas of interest are continuation of research in the field of systems approach, research and consultancy at organisational and national level, teaching at degree and post graduate level.

Dr Masego Mpotokwane was appointed to the BTA Board on 1 May 2005. He holds a PhD. in Environmental Science from the University of Stirling and a Master of Science in Rural Surveys from the International Institute for Aerial Survey and Earth Sciences in The Netherlands.

He has been working for the University of Botswana as a lecturer in Environmental Science for over 20 years. Research interests are; natural resource use for rural development, use of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for natural resource management and environmental policies.

Dr. Mpotokwane has been a member or an active participant in a number of NGOs dealing with environmental issues in Botswana and the region, such as: chairman Thusano Lefatsheng; founder member Somarelang Tikologo; member Kalahari Conservation Society; member Botswana Society; active participant in a number of IUCN Botswana's activities; active participant in Southern African Resource and Documentation Centre's (SARDC) activities (Harare).

Dr Tebogo Matome was appointed to the BTA Board on 1 May 2005. He holds a PhD. in Finance from the University of Birmingham, and a Master of Social Sciences in Accounting and Development Finance from University Of Birmingham.

He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA), a position he assumed in September 2005. He previously lectured in various finance and investment related courses at the University of Botswana from 1991 to September 1999 before he joined Botswana Insurance Fund Management Limited (BFIM) as a Portfolio Manager. He stayed with BFIM, Botswana's largest Pension Fund Manager for two years before he was appointed the first ever Chief Executive Officer of Botswana Stock Exchange in 2001, a post he held until his appointment as CEO of LEA.

Dr. Matome has held several appointments to committees and Boards including; The UB Salaries, and Terms and Conditions of Service Review Committee; Barclays Bank Economic Review Editorial Board; Board of Trustees of the UB Pension Fund; Bachelor of Banking and Finance Degree Establishment Committee; Accreditation Board for Trainers of the SMME Fund Loan Recipients; Reference Committee for Creating a Competition Policy for Botswana; National Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations and many others.

Dr. Matome's research interests are in the areas of capital markets, and investment finance. He has done research work on issues around the facilitation of a robust privatisation programme as well as methods of attaining national economic growth via the diversification of economic engines in Botswana. He has contributed research papers in trade journals and presented his research work to various fora. Dr. Matome has also attended several conferences and/or workshops pertinent to his areas of interest.

Mr Richard Charles Eaton was first appointed to the BTA Board 20 December 2002 and has served in the BTA Board since. Mr. Eaton matriculated at Brothers College in Kimberly, South Africa in 1942. He served in the South African Armed Forces, Served in North Africa and Mediterranean Areas from 1942 to 1943.

In 1949 he graduated from Cape Town University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Land Surveying.

He is a member of Land Surveyors, Chairman of Ghanzi Farmers Association, Member of Demarcation Commission (Village Areas in Kgalagadi and Ghanzi). He is also a Board member of Botswana Meat Commission and Board member of Botswana Livestock Development committee.

Dr. Taufila Nyamadzabo was appointed to the BTA Board on 26 May 2004. He is an economist by profession specialising in International Economics (International Trade and Finance), Monetary and Financial Economics, and Public Finance.

He started serving the Government of Botswana in June 1984 as an Assistant Economist in the Department of Manpower Planning, in the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning. He was subsequently promoted to various senior positions in the Ministry until his appointment in April 2004 as Department of Deputy Permanent Secretary (Economic Affairs), the position he holds to date.

Over the years, Dr. Nyamadzabo authored a list of policy background papers on manpower allocation, minimum wage setting, poverty datum line, employment and unemployment policy, econometric methods of forecasting labor demand, workers representation in the board of directors, crash training program, a grant/loan system for providing government post-secondary education scholarship, national productivity centers, etc which were prepared over the years.

He presented various workshop papers individually and in conjunction with other people. and produced or edited various reports for the Ministry of Finance and other public service committees and reference groups.

BTA is headed by Mr. Thari G. Pheko as the Chief Executive , and his deputy is Mr. Mphoeng O. Tamasiga, Deputy Chief Executive .

Mr. Thari G. Pheko was appointed Chief Executive of Botswana Telecommunications Authority (BTA) with effect from 1 January 2007.

Mr. Pheko holds a B.Sc (Hons) in Business Finance and Economics from University of East Anglia, United Kingdom, obtained in 1983 and an M.Sc in Management Information Systems obtained in the same university in 1986.

Prior to his appointment Mr. Pheko was self employed as a Managing Director of ZBL Investments Company since 2003 specialising in ICT consultancy and IT equipment. He previously Worked from the following companies;

He was at one time the President of Botswana Information Technology Society (BITS) and a part time lecture at the University of Botswana in Management and Information Systems.

Mr. Pheko has also undertaken a served in a number of consultancies amongst which is a Consultancy on the Information Society and ICT Development Strategy for the BTA in 2003 (Phase I of the World Summit on the Information Society by Botswana Delegation) Acted as rapporteurs in the subsequent Stakeholders’ consultative conference. He has also consulted for the Ministry, at the Department of Information Technology during the formulation of the Maitlamo ICT Policy. He was also one of the rapporteurs during the stakeholders’ forum on Further Liberalisation in the Ovum Report, a process which will be the subject of the next regulatory phase for BTA which he will now be its chief pilot.

Mr Mphoeng Tamasiga was appointed the Deputy Chief Executive of Botswana Telecommunications Authority with effect from 1 April 2007. He has over sixteen (16) years experience in the telecommunications industry at a senior policy level of which half of the period was working for the incumbent telecommunications operator whilst the other has been with the telecommunications regulator in Botswana starting from the latter's formative years.

After obtaining a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Economics and Statistics from the University of Botswana in 1983, Mr Tamasiga worked for the National Development Bank of Botswana responsible for design, evaluation and monitoring of large projects.

He obtained a Master of Business Administration (Corporate Finance) from the Golden Gate University in the United States of America in 1986 and a certificate in telecommunications regulation at City University in the United Kingdom in 1997.

Mr Tamasiga chaired the Telecommunications Regulators' Association of Southern Africa (TRASA) subcommittee on the development of universal service and access policy guidelines for the fourteen Member States of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC).