The dispute over shareholding at telecommunications giant Mascom Wireless enters mediation next week, following a protracted showdown/ standoff between Pan African telecommunications behemoth, MTN of South Africa and DECI -an investment vehicle owned by Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF). Francistown-based corporate lawyer, Sefelana Thapelo, has been agreed upon and appointed as the mediator in the dispute. The public service pension fund who are the second largest shareholder at Mascom, through an investment vehicle called DECI (40%), have set in motion a process to force MTN (who hold 53% shareholding) to offer them a right of refusal -conferred on them as pre-emptive rights stipulated in the shareholders’ agreement, failing which BPOPF is planning to invoke a forced sale. Econet (who own only 7% shareholding at Mascom) is alleged to have made an unsolicited bid for the shares held by MTN at Mascom, a development which is being vigorously contested by BPOPF. Econet Wireless founder Strive Masiyiwa – a born ICT billionaire, while addressing a youth entrepreneurship Town Hall meeting in Gaborone alongside President Mokgweetsi Masisi in April 2019, said the Mascom transaction was almost a done deal only awaiting finalization to confirm the acquisition of MTN shares. Coincidentally, Masiyiwa is…