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BMC, Air Botswana, BotsPost default on P618m gov’t loans

Trying times: The Botswana Meat Commission has struggled to stay afloat in recent years PIC: KENNEDY RAMOKONE
Trying times: The Botswana Meat Commission has struggled to stay afloat in recent years PIC: KENNEDY RAMOKONE

The Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), Air Botswana and BotswanaPost headline a list of parastatals struggling to pay government loans, with their collective debts last measured at P618 million.

According to the Auditor General’s latest report, which covers the year to March 2021, BMC owed government P248 million while the national airline was on the hook for P230 million and BotswanaPost P140 million.

In all three instances, the loans were made from government’s Public Service Debt Fund and date back several years. Bank of Botswana records show that BotswanaPost’s debt to government dates back to 2014–2015 and has gone without any repayments since then, while the BMC’s comprises two separate loans dating back to the 2019–2020 financial year. Air Botswana’s loan dates from 2018–2019.

Editor's Comment
Human rights are sacred

It highlights the need to protect rights such as access to clean water, education, healthcare and freedom of expression.President Duma Boko, rightly honours past interventions from securing a dignified burial for Gaoberekwe Pitseng in the CKGR to promoting linguistic inclusion. Yet, they also expose a critical truth, that a nation cannot sustainably protect its people through ad hoc acts of compassion alone.It is time for both government and the...

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