Category: Sunday Standard

Parliament has turned up the heat on government to overhaul Botswana’s veterinary disease control framework, calling for an urgent review and re-demarcation of livestock zones as pressure mounts from recurring outbreaks of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD).

The motion, tabled by Boteti West legislator Sam Digwa, targets sprawling zones such as 11 and 3B, arguing that their size undermines effective disease management. Lawmakers say the current structure makes it difficult to isolate outbreaks, deploy vaccines efficiently and enforce quarantine measures with precision. The motion also calls for urgent rehabilitation of veterinary cordon fences.

The push comes as government battles a widening outbreak first detected in Goodhope District. Acting Minister Edwin Dikoloti recently told a kgotla meeting that the disease has spread beyond initial containment areas, with confirmed cases reported at multiple crushes and a commercial feedlot. Authorities have since declared new infected zones under emergency regulations.

Officials concede the situation is fluid. Veterinary authorities have long argued that existing zones combine areas with varying risk levels, complicating surveillance and response efforts. The renewed outbreak has exposed these weaknesses, with cross-border transmission and internal movement controls proving difficult to manage.

Regionally, pressure is intensifying. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has recorded a surge in cases, pushing vaccine demand beyond supply. Botswana’s own production capacity is under strain, even as authorities race to restore disease-free status by 2028.

For farmers, the fallout is immediate. Movement restrictions are choking cattle sales and exports, while compliance costs rise. With beef exports tied to strict health standards, delays in reforming the zoning system risk deepening losses in one of Botswana’s most important agricultural sectors.

Choppies Enterprises Limited has opted for a modest shareholder payout, declaring a dividend of 1.0 thebe per share for the six months ended December 31, 2025, underscoring the retailer’s cautious stance amid margin pressure.

The Botswana Stock Exchange and Johannesburg-listed grocer said the dividend will be paid on April 29, with eligibility already locked in after the stock went ex-dividend on April 15. The register closed on April 17.

For local investors, the payout narrows further after tax. A 10 percent withholding tax reduces the dividend to 0.9 thebe per share, trimming already thin returns. South African shareholders will receive the dividend in Rands at a conversion rate of P1 to R1.155, equivalent to 1.155 cents per share before tax. Withholding tax of up to 20 percent may apply, subject to double taxation agreements.

Choppies said the distribution will be paid out of income reserves and treated as a foreign dividend for South African investors. The payout comes against a mixed set of results. Retail sales rose 8.9 percent to P5.09 billion, supported by the addition of 25 stores and selective price increases. However, earnings moved in the opposite direction.

Profit after tax from continuing operations fell 33 percent to P77 million, while operating profit declined 20 percent to P152 million, as cost pressures intensified. The company cited inflation, currency devaluation and the implementation of a living wage in Botswana as key drivers of margin erosion. A weaker pula alone added P64 million in costs, much of which could not be passed on to consumers.

With household spending under strain and government austerity weighing on demand, the results reflect a retailer expanding footprint even as profitability tightens.

Government has reiterated its difficulties in settling outstanding payments to oil companies, as rising global crude oil prices continue to strain the National Petroleum Fund (NPF). Speaking in Parliament, Minister of Minerals and Energy Bogolo Kenewendo said the fund has disbursed over P262 million in fuel subsidies over the past three months but still owes oil companies about P350.6 million in outstanding claims.

She said the NPF is struggling to fully cushion pump prices amid persistent increases in global oil prices, largely driven by geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. While the fund continues to support consumers, the rising cost of fuel imports has limited its ability to stabilise prices and meet supply obligations.

Kenewendo noted that although there has only been one upward fuel price adjustment in the 2025/26 financial year, in September 2025, underlying pressures have remained. Between June and September, import costs exceeded regulated prices, resulting in a cumulative debt of over P544 million due to delayed price adjustments.

The NPF has been absorbing these price differences to shield consumers, accumulating more than P150 million in recent months to offset rising costs. However, the pressure has intensified as global oil prices remain elevated.

The minister said recent pump price adjustments made at the end of March 2026 will continue to be supported by the fund, despite ongoing cost pressures. Fuel has been imported at higher prices while being sold below cost for several weeks, widening the gap between actual and regulated prices.

For March alone, under-recoveries are estimated at P714 million, reflecting the scale of the subsidy burden. The growing debt highlights the challenge facing government in balancing fuel subsidies with volatile global oil markets, while maintaining energy security and protecting consumers.

A decline in diamond prices weighed on Botswana’s mining sector in the final quarter of 2025, highlighting the economy’s continued exposure to global commodity cycles. The Producer Price Index, compiled by Statistics Botswana, tracks changes in prices received by producers in sectors such as mining and utilities, offering an early signal of inflationary trends in the economy.

Producer prices in mining fell sharply, with annual mining inflation recorded at -13.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025, though this marked a slight improvement from -17.4 percent in the previous quarter.

On a quarterly basis, the mining producer price index declined 4.3 percent, driven largely by a 5.4 percent drop in diamond prices, which dominate Botswana’s mineral exports. The data underscores how fluctuations in the global diamond market continue to shape domestic economic conditions.

While diamonds pulled the index lower, other minerals showed mixed performance. Coal prices surged, recording a strong quarterly increase, while soda ash and salt posted modest gains. Gold prices, however, also declined, adding to the downward pressure.

The contrasting movements point to a fragmented recovery within the mining sector, where smaller commodities are unable to offset the weight of diamonds.

In contrast, the utilities sector remained stable. Producer prices for water and electricity were unchanged during the quarter, although annual inflation held at a relatively elevated 19.1 percent, reflecting earlier price adjustments. The divergence between mining and utilities highlights two sides of Botswana’s price dynamics: externally driven volatility in exports and more stable, regulated pricing in domestic services.

For Botswana, the data reinforces a familiar pattern. When diamond prices soften, the ripple effects are felt across production, exports and ultimately growth. As global demand conditions remain uncertain, the latest figures suggest that any recovery in the mining sector will depend heavily on a turnaround in diamond markets rather than broader commodity support.

In a space of two months, between May and July this year, Botswana Tennis Association (BTA) will host two high profile tournaments.

The first of these, two ITF M15 and W15 tournaments, will be hosted in two consecutive weeks from the 11th to the 23rd of May 2026. The second one, the 2026 Billie Jean Cup Group 3 Africa tournament, will be on the 13th to the 18th of July 2026.

Hosting these events is part of BTA’s long term strategy to turn the country into a tennis powerhouse. It is also the BTA’s long term vision to contribute to the country’s economy through sport. And suffice to say, signs are there that both could be achieved.

On the sporting front, the ITF M15 and W15 pave the way for the country’s senior players who aspire to reach professional level. The ITF M15 and W15 tournament are an entry level professional tournament. For the two consecutive ITF M15 and W15 tournaments, a combined prize purse of US$60 000 (+/- P802 000) prize awaits.

For local players, the prize monies, though wanted, will not be the main focus. Limited opportunities at entry level professional tournaments have starved them of opportunities to get a foot into the professional setup. The ITF M15 and W15 tournaments will create such an entry.

As such, Botswana’s senior national team players, most of whom are playing college tennis in the USA, are expected to grace the tournament. Players like Ekoua Youri, Mark Nawa and Ntungamili Raguin, just to name three, are expected to be in the draw.

‘We expect most of our senior players to be available for the two consecutive ITF M15/W15 tournaments. Ntungamili on the other hand is expected to be available for one tournament only as he is expected to leave for the French Open juniors,’ BTA vice president technical Nonofo Othusitse says.

The BTA vice president technical says the ITF M15/W15 will also help the senior national team players to prepare for upcoming international assignments. The men will compete at the Davies Cup Africa Group IV scheduled for Nairobi, Kenya from the 17th to the 20th of June this year. The ladies on the other hand will be preparing for the 2026 Billie Jean Cup Africa Group 3 which will be hosted here in July.

Speaking of the latter tournament, Othusitse says eleven (11) countries, including hosts Botswana will attend. The countries will be vying for promotion to the Billie Jean King Cup Euro/Africa Group 2, a group composed of African and European countries.

For the local ladies, playing here at home will serve as a motivation as they make yet another attempt to get promoted. Last year during the same tournament in Namibia, the local ladies finished third behind Kenya and winners Morocco.

It is hoped the local ladies, backed by the home crowd, will emulate their male counterparts. Last year during the Davies Cup Africa Group V tournament here in Gaborone, the men’s senior team used the home ground advantage to gain promotion to Davies Cup Africa Group IV.

On the impact of hosting international tournaments in the economy, Othusitse says the country stands to benefit. Players from outside Botswana, their support staff and some of their supporters will descend into the country, injecting money into the local economy.

‘A total revenue of P6 million was generated from hosting international tournaments in 2025. This shows how hosting can impact the economy.’

During the period in time, the BTA says P5 million was spent on hotel accommodations, P1 million spent on air travel, P700 000 spent on catering and a further P50 000 spent on local transport and communications. It further says 200 seasonal jobs were created during the same period.

Of greater importance, Othusitse says 80 percent of the funding used to host came from outside the country. He says the BTA got grants from both the Confederation of African Tennis (CAT) and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to host.

‘And for this year’s ITF M15 tournament, we have been funded by Tiriac Foundation. They have committed US$30 000 to the tournament. We are now currently negotiating with other potential sponsors for a further US$30 000 to cover all the prize monies for the two consecutive tournaments.’

With so much to benefit from, the BTA is open to sponsorships and partnerships in kind to make the tournaments a success. Aside from prize monies, there is a need for monies towards logistics and administration of events.

‘We are open to both monetary and in kind partnerships and sponsorships to cover different services needed,’ Othusitse says.

Botswana’s public debt position has edged higher, driven largely by a sharp rise in domestic borrowing, according to the Annual Statements of Accounts (ASA) for the financial year ended 31 March 2023. in 2024, the Accountant General Office also raised concerns about the government’s borrowing practices highlighting a significant rise in total outstanding debt for the fiscal year 2021/22.

Accountant General Tebogo Tumango has now warned that while debt levels remain within manageable thresholds, the composition and pace of accumulation point to growing fiscal pressure, particularly on the domestic market.

‘There was a slight increase in total outstanding debt during the 2022/23 financial year, driven by growth in both external and domestic borrowing,’ Tumango noted in the report.

By the end of March 2023, total gross debt, including guarantees, stood at P50.90 billion, reflecting a 4 percent increase compared to the previous financial year. The rise was largely shaped by increased domestic financing needs, even as external debt recorded a modest decline.

External debt outstanding fell by 5 percent to P21.9 billion. The decrease was attributed to repayments exceeding new disbursements during the period under review, signalling a continued effort to manage foreign exposure and limit external vulnerabilities.

In contrast, domestic debt surged significantly, rising by 16 percent to P28.92 billion. The increase was driven by the continued rollout of the P30 billion Note Issuance Programme, which also saw Government intensifying its presence in the domestic capital market through more frequent auctions, shifting from quarterly to monthly issuances.

The programme was expanded following a 2019 review that identified structural constraints in the local bond market, leading to an increase in its ceiling from P15 billion in 2020. Authorities have since relied more heavily on domestic instruments to finance budgetary requirements.

Despite the increase in borrowing, Botswana’s debt ratios remain relatively low by international standards. The total debt-to-GDP ratio stood at 19.60 percent at the end of the 2022/23 financial year. External debt accounted for 8.46 percent of GDP, while domestic debt stood at 11.13 percent.

Government has also intensified revenue-enhancing measures in response to fiscal pressures. These include the revision of user fees and service charges, with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development authorised to adjust charges annually in line with inflation or other applicable rates, following consultation with relevant ministries.

Consultations were ongoing during the 2022/23 financial year in preparation for the third phase of revised fees and charges. Officials say the measures form part of broader fiscal consolidation efforts aimed at widening the domestic revenue base and ensuring long-term fiscal sustainability amid rising expenditure demands.

A high net worth tourist spent more than P800 000 of untraceable money on a safari in the Okavango Delta.

Years later, his identity remains unknown and so is the safari operator he paid. The anonymity is not accidental, it is structural. Botswana’s lucrative tourism industry is one of the rare global spaces where illicit wealth easily alchemizes into ordinary luxury.

That is the real story behind a footnote in the enforcement action against Wegelin and Co, a Swiss private bank, prosecuted in the United States of America (USA) for helping rich clients conceal undeclared offshore assets.

Buried in the case file is a single transaction, funds routed through the international banking system and spent on a safari in Botswana. No criminal charge hinges on the transaction. No safari operator has been named and no tourist has been identified. Yet the episode captures something larger than the case itself. It captures how, in a world where financial systems are highly effective at tracking movement but less effective at interpreting consumption, Botswana’s luxury tourism inevitably finds itself at the boundary between visibility and invisibility. It is the vortex where illicit wealth often does not vanish into secrecy, but instead reappears into the world as ordinary luxury.

According to luxury travel trackers like Dataintelo and Global Growth Insights, the Okavango Delta is grouped with locations like Sindalah Island and White Desert because it offers ‘Logistical Exclusivity’

The Dataintelo and Global Growth Insights place the Okavango Delta in a ‘league of three’ that defines the modern pinnacle of Ultra-High-Net-Worth (UHNW) travel.

The ‘League of Three’ is a conceptual classification used by luxury travel analysts and wealth intelligence experts to group the world’s most elite, inaccessible, and ultra-private destinations.

The publications further state that while destinations like St. Tropez or Aspen are for ‘seeing and being seen,’ the Delta, Sindalah, and White Desert are for ‘disappearing with distinction.’

Botswana’s tourism model is deliberately unusual. Unlike mass-market destinations that compete on volume, Botswana competes on exclusivity. Its wilderness areas, especially the Okavango Delta, are managed through a high cost, low volume strategy designed to protect fragile ecosystems.

The result is a tourism economy defined by scarcity; small camps rather than large resorts, limited guest number per concession, expensive logistics in remote terrain and premium pricing as a structural feature, not an exception.

A single safari can easily cost hundreds of thousands of Pula. Importantly, these prices are not artificially inflated, they reflect the real cost of operating in remote conservation zones with strict environmental controls.

But scarcity has another effect, it normalises high value transactions. When expensive payments are routine, they lose their statistical distinctiveness. That is why the more than P800 000 transfer by the anonymous net worth tourist does not stand out. It fits.

Modern anti money laundering frameworks, shaped by institutions such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), are designed to detect movement, unusual transfers, layered transactions, shell structures or rapid flows between accounts. Botswana’s high cost low volume transactions however fall through the cracks of FATF anti-money laundering framework. The transactions are direct purchase of a real service; they are a one-off transaction consistent with known market pricing and executed to a legitimate commercial entity. By the time the money reaches the Botswana tourism industry in its lifecycle, it has often already passed through multiple layers of banking infrastructure, private banks, correspondent banks and compliance screening systems. What remains is not ‘hidden money’ in motion. It is simply spending. And spending is the weakest signal in the entire FATF detection architecture.

Sunday Standard open source investigation suggests that the clients behind offshore structures like those once held at Wegelin were not necessarily engaged in complex criminal enterprises. Many were wealthy individuals who had accumulated assets during an era when offshore secrecy was normal, and enforcement was minimal or inconsistent.

The enforcement push that followed in the United States and Europe changed the rules. Undeclared wealth became a liability. But it did not disappear. Instead, it shifted from concealment to consumption. This is where Botswana’s tourism economy comes in, not because it enables wrongdoing, but because it is structurally compatible with the final stage of wealth usage.

A safari lodge does not need to interrogate the tax history of its guests. It delivers a service, guiding, accommodation and access to wilderness. The financial transaction is complete at the point of payment. The experience is the product.

The effectiveness of Botswana’s tourism sector as a destination for discreet high value spending is not rooted in opacity. It is rooted in legitimacy. The structural features matter most: High- end safaris are expensive by design and large payments are expected not exceptional. Unlike mass tourism markets, Botswana’s luxury sector processes relatively few but high-value transactions, reducing statistical anomaly detection. And once delivered, a safari leaves no financial residue to trace. It is consumed entirely in experience.

Bertelsmann Stiftung Index (BTI) 2026 Botswana Country Report has warned that emergency procurement measures during the Covid-19 pandemic created conditions that enabled corruption at senior levels of government even as the state battled a once-in-a-generation public health crisis.

According to the report, ‘corruption at senior levels grew following the suspension of public procurement procedures and the direct appointment of companies to supply personal protective equipment.’ The report highlighted how emergency decision-making frameworks weakened oversight mechanisms during the pandemic period.

The BTI assessment argues that the pandemic not only disrupted the economy but also exposed governance vulnerabilities. It states that Covid-19 ‘severely disrupted the economy, forcing the government to prioritize public health and declare a state of emergency,’ while simultaneously accelerating controversial procurement practices that would later draw public criticism and institutional concern.

The report situates the rise in corruption concerns within the broader context of crisis governance, where speed and emergency response took precedence over established accountability systems. The direct awarding of PPE contracts, according to BTI 2026, became a key flashpoint for allegations of abuse and preferential treatment, reinforcing long-standing concerns about transparency in public procurement.

While the report does not frame Botswana as a failed governance state, it warns that crisis conditions exposed structural weaknesses that had previously been less visible, particularly in procurement oversight and senior-level accountability.

The report observes that ‘the administration is committed to shifting from a mineral-based to a knowledge-based economy, promoting electric vehicles and strengthening agriculture,’ signalling an ambition to modernise the economic structure in the post-pandemic era. However, the transition is unfolding in a constrained fiscal environment. The BTI report warns that the current administration inherited ‘a fragile economy, with government investment accounts and foreign reserves nearly depleted,’ limiting immediate fiscal space for reform.

The new administration now faces substantial expectations from the electorate, including ambitious socio-economic commitments. According to BTI 2026, the government must grapple with ‘the mammoth task of implementing many of its electoral promises,’ including a proposed minimum wage of BWP 4,000, an old-age pension of BWP 1,800, and the creation of 450,000 jobs.

While Botswana has made measurable progress in basic service delivery, structural and logistical constraints persist. The BTI 2026 report, drawing on World Bank data, notes access levels of 92.6% for basic water, 80.6% for sanitation, and 75.9% for electricity in 2022.

However, it cautions that service delivery is undermined by ‘limited resources, corruption and bureaucratic inefficiencies,’ while geographic dispersion creates additional cost pressures. The report also points to infrastructure vulnerabilities, including theft of electrical cables that disrupts power supply in some areas.

The United States tax evasion prosecution against Wegelin and Co, Switzerland’s oldest private bank before it collapsed, has stumbled on a US $60, 000 safari expenditure that has exposed a blind spot in Botswana’s financial defence against money laundering.

The money laundering case has further revealed how tourism, one of Botswana’s flagship industries is perfectly structured to be blind to the moment when illicit wealth exits the shadows and enters the real economy disguised as ordinary consumption.

Sunday Standard open source investigation suggests that the US $60, 000 dirty money arrived in Botswana the way clean money often does – quietly, electronically, and with no obvious reason to doubt it.

Somewhere in the Okavango tourism circuit, a safari operator received a series of international payments totaling roughly $60, 000. For luxury safari, it was unremarkable. High-end lodges routinely bill that much for a week in the bush; private guides, charter flights, exclusive concessions. Nothing about the transaction screamed suspicion.

But the money’s journey tells a different story. It began in Switzerland, inside accounts at Wegelin and Co, the country’s oldest private bank before it collapsed under the weight of a US tax evasion prosecution. The client behind those accounts had not declared them to U.S authorities. When he wanted to spend, he didn’t repatriate the funds in his own name. Instead, he instructed the bank to move the money outward – carefully.

The payments were routed through the United States financial system, where dollar transactions often pass, even when neither sender nor recipient is American. That detour proved decisive. U.S investigators, piecing together patterns of undeclared offshore wealth, captured the transfers in court filings. Among them, wires sent to a ‘safari company’ in Botswana.

The name of the Botswana company never appears in the record. It is simply ‘the safari company’ – a placeholder in a legal narrative focused elsewhere.

And the omission is the point.

By the time the money reached Botswana, it had been laundered not through shell companies or fake invoices, but through something far harder to detect, normality. A legitimate business. A plausible expense. A payment size consistent with the market.

The whole transaction flew below the Botswana Financial Intelligence Agency (FIA) detection radar. There were no red flags that a local bank could reasonably act on. No sudden spike in activity, no mismatch between the company’s profile and the transaction. Just a foreign client paying for a safari. This is the structural blind spot. Botswana’s anti-money laundering framework, shaped in part by reforms following its grey-listing by the Financial Action Task Force between 2018 and 2021, leans heavily on risk-based detection. Banks are expected to flag unusual behavior, identify suspicious clients, and report anomalies. But the system is nor designed to question every legitimate looking payment, nor could it function if it tried.

When undeclared wealth is spent on tourism, property or services, rather than hidden, it blends seamlessly into the legal economy. The transaction that paid for a safari in Botswana looked, in every operational sense, clean. The crime existed upstream, in tax evasion and concealment and not in the final payment of safari services.

Detection, in this case, did not happen in Gaborone. It happened because the U.S authorities had visibility into dollar clearing systems and the legal leverage to compel disclosures from a foreign bank. Botswana, like most countries does not have that vantage point.

That dependence on external detection is not unique. It is a feature of the global financial system. Smaller jurisdictions, especially those integrated into international banking networks, rely on larger financial centers to surface risks that originate beyond their borders. But it creates a gap. Tourism, one of Botswana’s flagship industries sits squarely inside that gap. It attracts wealthy international clients, processes cross border payments and delivers high value services that justify large transfers. It is perfectly structured to receive funds that are both legitimate in use and illicit in origin.

There is no evidence the Botswana safari company involved in the Wegelin case did anything wrong. On the contrary, the available facts suggest that it may have simply provided a service and been paid accordingly. Yet its anonymity in the court record underscores a deeper reality; the system had no reason to notice it at all. And that the paradox at the heart of modern money laundering oversight. Regulations can tighten reporting rules, improve financial intelligence units, and demand greater transparency from banks. Botswana has done all that in recent years. But none of those measures fully address the moment when illicit wealth exits the shadows and enters the real economy disguised as ordinary consumption.

Few examples illustrate the transformation better than the importation of 162 cattle from Texas in 2023 under the administration of the former president Mokgweetsi Masisi. At the time, the purchase costing about P25m once transport and logistics were included was presented as a bold effort to improve the national herd.

It was also presented, by those now in power, as something else entirely.

Parliamentary committees were later told that the procurement had not been budgeted for and may have been unlawful. A revelation delivered with admirable bluntness before the electorate rearranged the seating plan.

That change has since required a certain intellectual agility. The cattle have not moved. They remain in Ramatlabama, adapting to local conditions and contributing, at least in theory, to the production of semen and embryos intended to improve the local livestock genetics.

What has moved is the explanation.

The matter resurfaced in Parliament when Dr Kesitegile Gobotswang inquired whether the purchase complied with public finance law, which vote had been used, and what role had been played by the National Agricultural Research and Development Institute.

It was a question that once would have been followed by emphatic agreement. Instead, it was followed by documentation.

The government responded with composure. The cattle, it explained, were not an isolated indulgence but part of a P93m project to refurbish the Ramatlabama Artificial Insemination Centre, an effort approved in March 2023 and designed to elevate the country into a centre of excellence in bovine reproduction. The animals themselves accounted for P22m of this broader ambition.

Embedded within such a framework, the purchase begins to look less like extravagance and more like policy.

The procurement method has undergone a similar rehabilitation. What the then opposition had regarded as suspiciously uncompetitive is now described as direct procurement, permissible under the law when circumstances justify it. In this case, the justification rests on the delicate matter of genetics. Elite cattle, it appears, cannot be expected to participate in open tender processes; they must be selected.

To that end, a multidisciplinary scouting team was dispatched to Texas, an expedition combining procurement oversight, veterinary science, legal expertise and animal breeding, all in pursuit of cows with the correct international outlook. There remain, inevitably, small complications. The absence of NARDI from the process has been acknowledged, though now with the tone of a procedural footnote rather than a constitutional crisis. Earlier claims that Parliament had not approved the expenditure have not so much been disproved as absorbed into a more expansive narrative about development planning and institutional processes.

Such reinterpretations are not unique to Botswana. Across democracies, incoming governments inherit not only policies but also the inconvenient persistence of facts. When reversal proves cumbersome, reinterpretation offers a more elegant solution.

Thus the Texas cattle have completed a journey more remarkable than their flight across the Atlantic. Once a symbol of alleged impropriety, they have become instruments of national development. Once cited as evidence of excess, they are now examples of foresight.

The transformation owes less to any change in the animals themselves than to a change in vantage point. From the opposition benches, they were a scandal. From the front bench, they are strategy. In politics, as in agriculture, perspective is everything.