Commitment by DPP to fight corruption welcome

The Monitor Editor | Wednesday October 14, 2026 06:00

Whilst many citizens put trust in their leaders that they are tackling one of the worst curses that can befall a country, the public has lost trust after all the cases seemed not to go anywhere.

As the saying goes, ‘corruption is a cancer that eats away at the fabric of society’; corruption affects effective governance.

Corruption affects delivery of services to the public and also crumbles most systems meant to assist citizens who are very much in need of services.

Societies in our country struggle with a lot of issues; the health sector is experiencing an acute shortage of medication, which puts people living with chronic ailments at risk of defaulting on life-saving treatments.

Medication for chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart conditions, kidney failure and others doesn’t come cheap.

Sadly, members of society who rely on the public health system are the elderly who are not employed and living on the P1,400 pension provided by government, which is not enough to buy medication, let alone buy food supplies for the month.

There have been many allegations of companies being engaged to provide certain services or supply certain commodities at hiked-up prices, some of which end up being paid without supplying anything. The situation is bad and needs to be tackled before it gets even worse.

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Kgosietsile Ngakaagae, speaking at a public lecture during the Botswana Sectors of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU) event, said: “We've taken a decision to prosecute corruption wherever it may be committed, by whoever it may be committed, whether the conveyor sleeps in a castle, or they sleep under the bridge. We've taken a solemn oath.”

“Let no one out there who knows that they have committed corruption delude themselves that they have escaped. So long as we have your docket, it's only a matter of time. So long as we have your docket, lawyer up, because we are coming.”

Rigorous fight against corruption is indeed a welcome development and something that many Batswana will welcome with open arms.

It is with hope that this is not just empty promises, but a commitment that will reduce corruption in our beautiful country and ultimately eradicate it forever.

It is not common knowledge that corruption is not only restricted to people who are in high-up positions, as it has spread down to other lower-level officers, and this needs to be nipped in the bud.