11 Nov 2025

 Government intends to improve the national roads network through high quality tolled roads to ensure sustainability in the development and maintenance of roads in Botswana. 

President Advocate Duma Boko said this when delivering  the  State-of-the-Nation Address in Gaborone yesterday. 

President Advocate Boko said the move was in line with the commitment of transforming Botswana into a transport hub for the 360 million strong Southern African Development Committee market. 

As a transit country, Botswana was poised to play an important role in facilitating intra-Africa trade as the implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area Agreement has commenced. 

Local transport legislation and standards he said were to be reviewed, harmonised and aligned with regional economic communities’ expectation. 

He stated that the construction of the A3 road had commenced, while feasibility for the A1 dual carriage tolled road, spanning over 600 kilometres was scheduled to commence before the end of the year. 

President Boko noted that Botswana’s position in the Southern Africa region provided a distinctive benefit of being a hub for trade and connectivity. 

He indicated that as the country advanced economic transformation and integration, rail transport became increasingly critical to unlocking new markets. 

In support of the idea, government he said had developed alternative railway lines, citing Mmamabula-Lephalale railway line and Mosetse-Kazungula-Livingstone line as part of SADC’s Strategic Plan of the North-South Corridor (NSC). 

On another note, President Boko stated that government reviewed the Development Manager Model to assess its fiscal sustainability, which was completed in March and published in August 2025. 

 According to President Boko the review revealed serious flaws including procedural gaps, weak stakeholder engagement, and misalignment with legal frameworks. 

He stated that most concerning were the financial implications, as the structure and magnitude of associated fees placed an unsustainable burden on public resources and in response, government revoked all three Presidential Directives that had approved the model and its governance structures. 

Sixteen projects already under construction , he said would continue, using alternative delivery or financing methods, to ensure continuity while reducing fiscal risk and improving oversight. 

The President noted that for the remaining 132 projects still at conceptual stage, a thorough reassessment was underway to explore better-aligned options, as the goal was to ensure value for money and consistency with national priorities. 

Given the current fiscal constraints, the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model had become essential for delivering key infrastructure projects without overstretching government resources and in order to make it more responsive, the PPP Framework was being strengthened through the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme, to make it more inclusive, transformative and private sector-led. 

Over the next 12 months, urgent milestones included tabling the PPP Bill, deploying PPP functions, resourcing the PPP Unit, and operationalising the appropriate governance structure. These steps would ensure that PPPs delivered value, efficiency and impact, the President said. 

With regards to provision of safe drinking water , President Boko said it remained a key priority, stating that implementation of water and sanitation projects during the financial year 2025/2026 had mainly been focused on completion of major projects. 

President Boko noted that Projects such as the NSC 2.2, Palapye to Mmamashia Water Supply Pipeline Contracts 1, 2, and 3, NSC 2.3 - Mmamashia to Gaborone Water Supply Scheme; Lobatse Water Master Plan; Molepolole, NSC Connection (Gamononyane); Moshupa Sanitation; Mmamashia Water Treatment Plant; Tswapong South Phase 2; Good Hope Water Supply Phase 2.2 were all at the stages of wrapping up and consolidating final accounts. 

 He said the process of concluding the outstanding works had however been affected by delays in payment of service providers. 

Maun Water and Sanitation project came to an end with early beneficiation realised for both water and sanitation while Kanye Sanitation project that had taken long to conclude was now winding up and most of government institutions had been connected to the system, he said. 

 He stated that pipeline gaps were being addressed to fully operationalise the entire scheme to enable the Kanye community to be connected. 

Further,  he said  Boteti South-Central Water Supply was  at 98 per cent complete while Kanye Network Rehabilitation stood at 96 per cent completion and would be completed by end of the financial year. 

Projects that were in their earlier stages of implementation by beginning of 2025/2026, the President said included Molepolole Water Treatment Plant which was about 80 per cent complete, Molepolole Water and Sanitation at 22 per cent completion rate, Werda / Makopong Water Supply; 50 per cent complete, Dimajwe Water Supply; 30 per cent complete and Sowa Water Supply which is nine per cent complete. 

President Boko said the projects had been seriously affected by payment delays and had all progressed slowly. 

 On Digitilisation, he said it was a critical enabler for bold transformation of the economy. 

President Boko said government through the Ministry of Communications and Innovation in partnership with the Botswana Development Corporation (BDC), Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) and other stakeholders have commenced an ambitious journey to launch and go-live on an ultramodern, secure platform where all government services will be delivered within the next 6 months, 

That he said, would be backed by improved infrastructure that would ensure reliability and stability of the platform. 

He further said procurement had been a major bottleneck slowing down progress in many development initiatives saying government would invite experts to bid for the provision of e-Procurement services to address the issue. 

He said it was a bold move that would rid procurement of corruption, raise the levels of transparency, strengthen and standardise procurement controls across government, while ensuring that government no longer suffered the devastating damage caused by high prevalence of price gauging. ENDS