BONELA accuses Khama of neglecting HIV issues

The organisation expresses its concern in a statement, saying the President "overlooked or ignored the following; prioritising health, in particular, HIV and AIDS" in his State of the Nation address. The BONELA statement says Khama did not reassure Batswana that the health of the nation is important to his administration while "poverty eradication came across as his key intervention, resulting in millions of Pula being committed to it. He has even appointed a Cabinet Sub-Committee for Poverty Eradication".

 "The President painted a picture that does not exist in as far as drugs availability and health services are concerned," says BONELA. "There are drug stockouts and people spend long hours in queues. "The nation was recently hit by shortage of ARVs and the President did not make any reference to the issue, just like his Minister of Health. Millions worth of drugs expire and get destroyed, and Khama was expected to touch on this - explain why and assure us of concrete future plans in mitigating this.