STAFF WRITER
Botsile Kebapetse has been appointed as the new Managing Director of Botswana Bureau of Standards (BOBS) after acting in the position from early this year.
He has been holding the position of Deputy Managing Director. Kebapetse joined BOBS in 1998. His most significant appointment was to the position of Director – Regulatory Compliance in 2009 to head the then newly established Department of Regulatory Compliance (DRC) after a short stint as Manager – Compulsory Standards.
As DRC, he was responsible for the implementation of both the Standards Act of 1995 and the Weights and Measures Act of 2007, and their related regulations. Of note is his sterling leadership in the implementation of the Standards (Import Inspection) regulations (2008) (SIIR) whose primary objective is to prevent dumping of prescribed goods in Botswana. Noting that BOBS does not have global presence, he oversaw the establishment of Global Inspection System (GIS) through which competent globally placed Inspection Bodies including National Standards Bodies (NSBs) would be identified to form a globally placed body of Recognized Inspection Bodies (RIBs).
The purpose of these RIBs is to ensure Inspection and testing of goods in the country of origin before they can be imported into Botswana. In order to enhance the achievement of the objectives of both the Standards Act of 1995 and the Weights and Measures Act of 2007, Kebapetse oversaw the identification of Critical success partners which include inter alia Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS), the Botswana Police Services (BPS), and the Private Sector including amongst others Business Botswana (BB) and Botswana Exporters and Manufacturers Association, and the Public Sector.