Graduates who are working in the private sector are not repaying their scholarship loans, Department of Tertiary Education Financing (DTEF) director, Mr Marcus Maedza has said.

As a result, he said, government was owed around P4 billion by graduates who were sponsored by government. Addressing the Francistown City Council (FCC) full council meeting on May 21, Mr Maedza said they had set up a bank account with FNB for graduates to deposit payments, but they were not forth coming.

He said they were working with the department of Immigration to locate some of the graduates. Mr Maedza further said there was a worrying trend of graduates who were sent to study abroad and chose not to come back after completion of their studies.

According to their research estimation, around 110 Batswana trained doctors were practising in Ireland while 47 graduates ranging from medicine and other fields were in Australia. He said the country was also losing doctors to South Africa. And statistics from January to May this year indicated that around six doctors had left to work in South Africa, he said.

“Some of these graduates spend youthful years in their country of study and they get used to the lifestyle to the extent of having a family and obtaining a citizenship in those countries.” he said. He said about P130 million was owed by students who chose to stay abroad upon graduating.

Responding to the presentation, councillor for Donga, Mr Ben Mpotokwane said graduates must put their country first. He said if they did not pay back their sponsorship loan, it would exhaust the remaining funds, which could be used for the next generation.

Cllr Mpotokwane further said government should review the pay structure and working conditions of doctors, which he said might be the contributing factors towards their relocation. 

For his part, Monarch East councillo, Mr Ignatius Moswaane said graduates must honour their contracts with government. He said there should be a proper arrangement for graduates to pay their scholarship loan regardless of where they were. 

Block 5 councillor, Mr Steven Michael opined that government salary structure and lack of accommodation maight be the major contributing factors. Cllr Michael said before government could work on an arrangement for payment, they should first address such issues.  ENDS