The Botswana Congress Party (BCP) has called for an urgent parliamentary investigation into the African Hero schools and clinics initiative, alleging that the project could leave taxpayers with a bill of more than P20 billion.
The opposition party made the call on Monday, two days after President Duma Boko officially launched the initiative and unveiled the Duma Boko School and Clinic in Block 7, Gaborone.
In a strongly worded statement issued by its Secretary for Publicity and Information, Olebile Machete, the BCP described the project as “state capture” and demanded that government publish all agreements connected to it.
The party alleges that 100 prefabricated schools, costing about P36 million each to construct, would have a combined construction cost of approximately P3.6 billion. However, it claims taxpayers could eventually pay almost P200 million for each school over 20 years, bringing the total commitment to more than P20 billion.
According to the BCP, the difference between the construction cost and the alleged long-term payments raises serious questions about value for money.
“Batswana are being marched to the slaughterhouse of public finance. We are told to smile, call it investment, and hand over P20 billion for schools that should cost P3.6 billion,” the party said.
The BCP also questioned how the project moved forward after the Ministry of Finance raised concerns about an earlier proposal linked to South African businessman Zunaid Moti.
In June 2025, Ministry of Finance Permanent Secretary Tshokologo Kganetsano told the Public Accounts Committee that an investor had proposed financing the construction of schools and clinics before renting them to government.
Kganetsano said the financial implications were too heavy and the proposal was returned to the ministries responsible for the project to be scaled down. At the time, he said the ministry was still waiting for the parties to settle on a final agreement.
The BCP now wants government to explain whether the African Hero initiative launched on Saturday is based on the same proposal or a different financing arrangement.
“The Ministry said no. Then someone overrode the Ministry,” the party charged.
However, President Boko said during Saturday’s launch that government did not spend anything on the construction of the Block 7 school and clinic. He said government would take responsibility for running the facilities, including providing teachers, health workers and medicines.
The President said the arrangement also included maintenance of the facilities. He presented the project as a new way of delivering public infrastructure at a time when government was struggling with limited finances.
African Hero and its private-sector partners, including Jindal Energy, financed the pilot project. The initiative intends to build 100 schools and 50 clinics across Botswana before expanding to other African countries.
Moti has also denied having business dealings with government, saying his interest is to develop Botswana and make a positive impact. He said the African Hero model would deliver schools and clinics faster and at a lower cost than conventional construction.
The BCP remains unconvinced and has demanded that Vice President and Finance Minister Ndaba Gaolathe table all agreements, guarantees, land allocations, side letters and payment schedules involving government and African Hero.
“If the deal is clean, publish it. If they refuse, the country will know why,” the party said.
It also wants the Public Accounts Committee to convene an emergency meeting and summon Kganetsano to explain what happened to the proposal previously returned by the Finance Ministry.
The BCP offered to meet the cost of the special committee meeting should Parliament claim that it does not have funds to convene.
The party said it would meet civil society organisations, labour movements and other groups between September 14 and 18 to decide on a national response to the project.
