Moti’s African Hero project is now at the centre of a flagship school and clinic development bearing the President Duma Boko’s name. Moti, a friend to Boko, financed the Umbrella for Democratic Change’s (UDC) 2019 General Election campaign. Now, the businessman’s group is behind African Hero, an initiative whose Block 7 school-and-clinic development is being showcased as the first physical proof point of the new infrastructure model. For the UDC government, the timing and trajectory of the project are likely to raise eyebrows especially that the same proposal, which was previously subjected to scrutiny over its financial implications, has now evolved into a visible development being prepared for official unveiling.
African Hero is a project of Zotex Holdings, which is owned by the Moti Group. Its original government proposal envisaged a 17-year lease-to-own arrangement for schools and clinics, with a single school estimated to cost P36.4 million and a clinic P9.1 million. The company pitched the model as a faster and cheaper alternative to conventional construction, promising ready-made facilities that could be delivered within a fraction of the time normally associated with brick-and-mortar projects. The proposal was initially not warmly received by the Ministry of Finance. The ministry confirmed last year that the Treasury had been brought into the discussions and warned that the financial implications were substantial. The Ministry of Finance also indicated that government was not then in a position to borrow money to fund the arrangement and was awaiting a final agreement before advising on its financial implications. But the project did not disappear, and instead, African Hero now describes the Duma Boko School & Clinic in Block 7 as its flagship and Botswana’s first proving ground.
