Hukuntsi battles drug, transport crisis
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Wednesday December 10, 2025 06:00
The District Council chairperson, Stephen Lekgobero, revealed that their health facilities have recorded a noticeable drop in the availability of key medications.
“We have seen a decline of five percent, moving from 81% in quarter one to 76% in quarter two,” he said when addressing councillors during a full council meeting this week.
According to him, this reduction reflects the mounting pressure caused by the national supply challenges.
He further explained that health facilities are increasingly forced to make difficult decisions regarding patient care due to the shrinking stock of vital, essential and necessary medicines.
“Our facilities are doing everything they can, but the shortages make it hard to respond to all cases adequately,” he added. As a result, some patients face delays in receiving the medications they need.
Consequently, Lekgobero stated the district continues to use micro procurement provisions to ease the situation.
“The district will continue to use micro procurement provisions to augment the Central Medical Stores supply to alleviate the ongoing shortages of medicines and medical commodities,” he revealed.
Although this method has helped bridge the gap, he stressed that it is not a long-term solution. Rather, it is a stopgap measure to prevent facilities from running out completely.
Meanwhile, the chairperson said a second challenge that is compounding the problem is transport limitations.
He noted that the district continues to face persistent fleet shortages and frequent breakdowns of service vehicles and ambulances.
“We are still experiencing transport challenges emanating from the shortage of fleet and frequent breakdown of vehicles and ambulances,” Lekgobero told the council.
He added that the situation is worsened by the geographical conditions in the area.
“This is due to the rough terrain in our district,” Lekgobero explained, pointing out that the harsh landscape accelerates wear and tear, often leaving the district with fewer operational vehicles than required.
The transport setbacks, he said, hamper not only emergency responses but also the delivery of medical supplies and outreach services to remote settlements.
He said there is need to increase vehicles and ambulances, noting that without sufficient support, districts such as Hukuntsi will continue to struggle with both medicine shortages and fleet deterioration, ultimately affecting the quality of healthcare delivery.
On other issue, he said as November 25, 2025 marked the beginning of 16 days of activism against gender based violence and the theme for this year is “Unite To End Digital Violence Against Women And Girls’’, but what concerns them is growing cases.
“With the escalating numbers of GBV cases nationwide, the disturbing number of defilement and rape cases in our district, it's important that as honourable members we stand up.
“We can no longer accept the excuse that defilement is part of our culture. We destroy the future of our children,” he said.
He said from September this year, the district registered a total of six new cases of rape and five new cases of defilement.
Furthermore, he revealed that there is a new form of violence that is emerging.
“This is called online violence and it includes, cyberbullying, cyberstalking, threats just to mention a few. The consequences of this kind of violence is real and most cases remain unreported.
The victims end up taking their lives. This therefore make the digital space unsafe for a majority of people,” he said.
He said a new programme launched by the First Lady, Kaone Boko recently called Mpepu programme is another milestone in safeguarding the wellbeing and future of children across Botswana.
“The initiative focuses mainly on strengthening maternal and infant care and addressing their nutrition and their wellbeing. This also focus in the safety protection of these children. Let us all embrace the initiative,” he stated.