20th AUGUST 2026, National Assembly, Gaborone

Right Honourable Speaker, I find it necessary to make a Statement as provided for by Standing Order 9.3.2. I rise today to address this Honourable House and the nation on the continuing public health crisis that has gripped Botswana for far too long.

What we are witnessing is not merely a shortage of medicines; it is a systemic failure of governance that has compromised the health, dignity, and lives of our people. I rise to speak on an issue that goes to the very heart of the social contract between the Government and the people of Botswana: the state of our public healthcare system.

I do so because what we are witnessing is no longer an isolated shortage of medicines or a temporary administrative difficulty. It is a prolonged and systemic crisis. Across our country, patients continue to encounter shortages of essential and nonessential medicines and medical consumables.

Health facilities continue to experience staffing shortages, inadequate capacity, equipment challenges, long waiting periods and weaknesses in referral systems. For many Batswana, seeking healthcare has become an experience of uncertainty: uncertainty about whether the medicine will be available, whether a doctor will be available, whether equipment will be functioning and whether a procedure will take place.

That is not the standard of healthcare that Batswana deserve. Mr Speaker, we must acknowledge that this Government recognised the seriousness of the situation. On 25th August 2025, the President declared a nationwide State of Public Health Emergency following the collapse of the national medical supply chain.

A P5billion pula Health First Botswana Partnership Fund was established, and a National Task Force was activated. The nation watched with hope as trucks carrying life-saving supplies were dispatched to the farthest corners of the country. The President promised a four-step plan to restore stability, and the Ministry of Finance released P250 million in emergency funds.

Yet, here we are. The crisis has not abated. And Batswana seeking health services continue to suffer countrywide. The declaration of an emergency was therefore a recognition that the ordinary systems of healthcare delivery had failed to protect the public adequately. It was also accompanied by a promise that is still pending: delivery.

Government promised that the emergency intervention would not merely address the immediate shortage, but would lead to sustainable systems and structural reforms so that Botswana would not find itself in such a crisis again.

Mr Speaker, more than a year later, we must ask: What has changed? The answer cannot simply be that medicines have arrived in boxes shown on Facebook or that a National Health Insurance (NHI) has been established.

The question must be whether Botswana now has a health system capable of reliably ensuring that the right medicine reaches the right patient, at the right facility, at the right time. And the evidence before this House tells us that we are not there at all.

THE HARD REALITY ON THE GROUND

Mr Speaker, the shortages persist across our public health facilities. At the height of this crisis, medicine availability dropped as low as 17 per cent. While the Ministry claims improvements—reporting 44% availability for diabetes medicines and 38% for heart health medicines as of June 2026 —these figures represent a system still in critical condition.

Patients with hypertension, diabetes, and chronic conditions continue to face life-threatening interruptions in their treatment. Mr Speaker, we must be honest. Improvement from a crisis level is not the same as resolution of the crisis. When this government fails to address the health crisis, they resort to blaming healthcare workers, as we saw one of the Cabinet Ministers accusing health workers of hiding medicines.

From my experience, having been a public health service patient several times, I have seen how selfless health workers are, and many have consistently gone the extra mile to deliver the best service possible, even with the known constraints they work under. I therefore feel it will be proper for the cabinet to update this House and Batswana on actions taken against those health workers that the Minister accused of hiding medicines.

For many of us as Members of Parliament, part of our Constituency duties have included buying medicines for our constituents, paying for services not available at the public facilities and fuelling cars to take our constituents elsewhere for quicker medical attention.

BEYOND MEDICINES: A SYSTEM IN CRISIS

Honourable Speaker, the problem extends far beyond medicine shortages. In addition to a shortage of medicines and consumables, our health facilities face the challenge of Staffing and Capacity Challenges. Health workers are overwhelmed.

At Princess Marina Hospital, patients queue from early hours of the night, waiting the entire day and sometimes only to be turned away unseen. The wards are so overwhelmed that sometimes patients have to wait for a while for admission, until there is a free bed. The shortages range from commodities, human resources, beds, sheets and blankets, and other essentials.

Shockingly, I have been made aware by several practitioners that some of the qualified doctors who could be servicing our ailing health system are home, unemployed. Some have been unemployed for nearly a year, waiting for placement and to start delivering on the work they went to school for, for many years. Imagine the paradox of having a shortage of doctors, yet qualified doctors are sitting at home unemployed.

My office has received similar concerns from pharmacy graduates. Mr Speaker, what kind of health system has a shortage of doctors while qualified doctors are sitting at home unemployed? It is a paradox that we cannot afford to ignore. Government must urgently reconcile its reported staffing shortages with the pool of qualified professionals waiting to be absorbed into the public health system.

Mr Speaker, the crisis becomes even more serious when we look beyond Gaborone and the major urban centres. The distance from Khwai to Maun is no easy feat, further exacerbated by the poor roads. A shortage of doctors may mean waiting months or travelling to another district. A shortage of diagnostic equipment may mean that a patient must be referred hundreds of kilometres away.

That is why rural healthcare must be central to our response. The test of our healthcare system is not only whether a patient in Gaborone can eventually access a specialist. The test is whether a Motswana in Shakawe, Gudigwa, Mokokwana, Kolonkwaneng, Sefophe, Monwane, Satau or anywhere in Botswana, can access quality healthcare without being disadvantaged because of where they were born or where they live.

THIS IS A GOVERNANCE CRISIS AS MUCH AS A RESOURCE CRISIS

Mr Speaker, the Opposition believes that we must confront an uncomfortable truth. The healthcare crisis in Botswana is not only about resources. It is also about governance. Deficits in procurement, contract management, forecasting, supply chain management, human-resource planning, predictive and proactive maintenance, as well as accountability, fall squarely on GOVERNANCE.

Indeed, Government itself has repeatedly come before this House to provide updates on how they are trying to mitigate the crisis. In March this year, the Minister told Parliament that the State of Public Health Emergency followed a catastrophic disruption of the national medical supply chain, with availability of critical medicines having fallen to as low as 17 per cent at the height of the crisis.

Government reported subsequent improvements following emergency procurement and distribution. So the question before us is no longer: “Does Government know there is a problem?” Government clearly knows. The question is: “Why are the mitigation plans continuing to reproduce the same problems?” That is the question Government must now answer.

Mr Speaker, we must resist the temptation to solve every healthcare problem simply by asking for more money. Money matters. But money without proper systems, accountability and administrative discipline will not produce the healthcare system that Batswana deserve. We need to know not only how much Government spends, but what that expenditure delivers.

ACCOUNTABILITY FAILED

Mr Speaker, the Public Accounts Committee has exposed administrative failures within the Central Medical Stores (CMS). The accounting officer confirmed that the biggest challenge the country is grappling with is the existence of some unscrupulous middlemen in the procurement system.

Honourable Members will recall that the Minister of Health and the Assistant Minister have delivered multiple statements to Parliament—in July 2025, August 2025, October 2025, and June 2026. Each time, we were told the situation was improving. Each time, we were assured that medicines were en route. Yet, the shortages continue. This is not oversight. This is mismanagement.

A CALL TO ACTION

Mr Speaker, I wish to reiterate the quintessential role that Parliament plays in assisting the Government to address these healthcare challenges. Parliament must be able to scrutinise the full health chain: from procurement, to supplier, to warehouse, to distribution, to health facility, to patient.

If a medicine has been procured but does not reach the clinic, the problem has not been solved. If the medicine is sitting in a warehouse while a patient is turned away at a clinic, the system has failed. If equipment has been purchased but is not functional because of poor maintenance, the expenditure has not translated into healthcare.

If a specialist has been employed but cannot function because the necessary equipment or medical consumables are unavailable, capacity has not been created. The Government must therefore begin measuring healthcare success at the point where it matters most: the patient. A Government that functions in the best interests of its people does not focus solely on the input, but rather the output, MADUO, eseng gore go dirisitswe bokae.

Honourable Speaker, the opposition demands the following urgent actions:

1. Full accountability for the P5 billion Health First Botswana Partnership Fund. Where has this money gone? How much has been spent? What has been procured? How has the health sector significantly improved?

2. A transparent national medicines availability and stock-out monitoring system, showing availability by district and, where appropriate, by facility.

3. The removal of the unscrupulous middlemen from the procurement system and sticking with reliable suppliers, direct sourcing from affordable markets, where prices are significantly reasonable, also linked to the collaborative regional health procurement pooling.

4. An independent, transparent investigation into the procurement failures at CMS and the Ministry of Health, whose report will be made public, unlike the forensic audit report.

5. A comprehensive human-resources plan focused not only on recruitment, but also on retention, specialist capacity, rural deployment and the working conditions of healthcare professionals.

6. Develop and share a human resource audit for the entire health sector in the country and a comprehensive mitigation strategy.

7. A genuine commitment to decentralising healthcare delivery and addressing the capacity challenges in our rural facilities.

8. An accelerated programme for the repair, maintenance and replacement of essential medical equipment. Can we also establish whether we have full local capacity to conduct these maintenance works, given how we are producing quite capable graduates?

9. A targeted national programme to strengthen rural clinics, district hospitals, referral systems and emergency medical services.

10. Measurable targets for reducing waiting times for specialist services, diagnostics, surgeries and other critical procedures.

11. Clear comprehensive timelines and milestones for Universal Health Coverage and National Health Insurance.

12. Translate NHI focus areas, targets and deliverables into Setswana and other local dialects for ease of comprehension by all.

13. Urgently harmonise the relocation of medical practitioners happening between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Local Government, which seems to be the cause of many of the inconsistencies, frustrations and operational disruptions. As the Opposition, we remain committed and available to assist the Government in achieving all of these successfully.

OUR HEALTH WORKERS ARE EXHAUSTED

Mr Speaker, we must also speak about the people who carry this health system every day: our doctors, nurses, pharmacists, laboratory personnel, allied health professionals, technicians and other healthcare workers. Government has itself acknowledged the severity of staffing shortages. These shortages do not exist in isolation.

When healthcare workers are continuously required to function in an overstretched system, burnout becomes inevitable. We therefore need a comprehensive recruitment and retention strategy. Our healthcare workers cannot be expected to compensate indefinitely for systemic failures.

GOVERNMENT MUST BE HELD TO ITS OWN COMMITMENTS

Mr Speaker, as I draw to a conclusion, I wish to say that this Government has made significant commitments to the people of Botswana. We welcome these commitments. But commitments must have timelines, responsible authorities and measurable milestones. Batswana should not have to wait indefinitely for promises to become policy, policy to become implementation, and implementation to become results.

In particular, the National Health Insurance programme must not become another announcement that exists primarily on paper. It must be designed and implemented in a manner that expands access, reduces inequality and improves the quality and capacity of the health system. Mr Speaker, as we approach another Budget cycle, the Opposition will not judge the Government simply by the amount of money allocated to healthcare.

We will ask whether the Budget responds to the actual pressure points in the system. And, critically, does it establish mechanisms through which Parliament and the public can determine whether these investments have actually produced results? A bigger health budget is not automatically a better health system. What matters is whether the allocation produces better healthcare for the citizen.

Mr Speaker, this debate should not be a partisan squabble over whether things are getting better. Functioning health systems are measured against international standards. The World Health Organisation defines core building blocks—governance, service delivery, workforce, information systems, medical products, and financing— and for medicines, a full management cycle from selection to distribution, with transparent procurement, quality assurance, and accountability. These are not academic ideals; they are essentials for getting medicines to patients.

A BETTER BOTSWANA IS POSSIBLE

Mr Speaker, Botswana once had a health system that was a model for Africa. We had universal coverage. We had low maternal mortality. We had reliable medicine supply chains. Today, patients buy their own bandages, syringes, and life-saving drugs for chronic conditions. Surgeries are postponed due to shortages of consumables and equipment. Pharmacy shelves are empty. This is not the Botswana we were promised. This is not the Botswana our people deserve.

GOVERNMENT MUST MOVE FROM ANNOUNCEMENTS TO DELIVERY

The Opposition is not calling for Government to fail. We want Government to succeed. Because when Government succeeds in healthcare, Batswana live longer, healthier and more dignified lives, including us as their MPs. But when Government fails in healthcare, the consequences are immediate and irreversible. That is why healthcare cannot be treated as an ordinary policy issue. The lives of Batswana depend on it. Bagaetsho, we see you.

We see your challenges. Where possible, we are also trying to help. While the challenges we face today are heartbreaking, I plead with all of us not to lose hope in restoring and rebuilding our country. Let us continue to help and support one another where we can. Botswana will rise again. TOGETHER.

Ke a leboga.