BG correspondent

FOOTBALL
The public and institutional investors have not rushed to take up Tafic Sporting Club shares following the team’s decision to go private two months ago. As a result, the club has been forced to revise the July deadline, which they had set for the completion of the sale of shares.
The club has put 3000 shares in the market with each share going for P1000. 
“We have been targeting the end of July but it has proved that the selling of shares will go past that. Progress in the selling of shares in particular is slower as compared to other measures being taken in privatising the club. Tafic are now a company, as we have managed to be issued with a Certificate of Incorporation by the Registrar of Companies. We are going to start the next season with Tafic being a private company,” said the Tafic public relations officer, Thomas Chabalala this week.
Tafic, which since early June has been selling shares to both members of the public and some business community across the country, have not met the halfway mark of disposing the shares.
While some within the Tafic family are starting to express discomfort about the privatisation process, Chabalala said the selling of shares is promising and the targets are likely to be achieved in the near future.
“It is not that we have failed to sell the shares. The selling of shares is promising. There is light at the end of the tunnel. It is that we experienced some logistical and technical problems in the last two months. Some people did not understand the procedure of accessing the shares and the general application.
This is because almost everybody was focusing on the just-ended 2010 Soccer World Cup showpiece in the neighbouring South Africa. The conveyance of important information to the potential buyers was not all that sufficient,” said Chabalala.
Chabalala encouraged potential buyers to draw certainty from the fact that Tafic have managed to keep all the players who did the job for the club in the last season – a sign that he described that players have realised the prospects of the project.
He called upon the business across the country to consider investing with Tafic through the buying of shares and reap rewards at the end.
“I want to plead with the business community in Francistown and outside to invest in the Tafic shares. This is the opportunity for the business community to reap big rewards from their association with Tafic Club. We are looking beyond advertising mileage where names of sponsoring companies are engraved on Tafic shirts.
Tafic are calling sponsors to come and buy shares rather than just sponsoring,” advised Chabalala, adding that members of the public are encouraged to deposit cash into the team’s bank account at Barclays Bank Botswana in Francistown. He also said that shareholders certificate are obtained from MPN Business Consultancy which is situated above Meriting Spar in Francistown.