President Duma Boko has emerged as the founding chairman of the controversial African Hero infrastructure initiative linked to businessman Zunaid Moti.
On its website, the initiative reveals that ‘African Hero is led by H.E. President Advocate Duma Gideon Boko, President of the Republic of Botswana and Founding Chairman of African Hero – a statesman whose leadership gives the initiative its moral force, continental ambition and delivery mandate.’
The revelation has placed Boko at the centre of an arrangement that the Botswana Republican Party (BRP) says requires urgent parliamentary and public scrutiny.
African Hero’s flagship project, the Duma Boko School and Clinic in Block 7, Gaborone, was launched in September with Government providing the land while private-sector partners financed construction. Government will operate the facilities, including providing teachers, nurses and medicines. The school is expected to accommodate about 380 learners.
But the BRP says the issue is not whether Botswana needs schools, clinics or private investment; It is whether the State entered the arrangement transparently, lawfully and in a manner that protects taxpayers. In its September 2026 position paper, titled ‘The Boko-Moti-African Hero Arrangement,’ the opposition party argues that public infrastructure cannot be removed from normal scrutiny simply because construction was financed privately.
‘The building of a school is a public good. A clinic is a public good. Private investment is good. Philanthropy is good,’ the BRP says. It adds that; ‘But provision of knock-down infrastructure no matter how pretty it looks does not make an opaque governance arrangement good.’
The party says Government must publish the agreements, financing arrangements, ownership structures, land allocation documents, procurement or exemption records and any present or future financial obligations associated with African Hero.
The BRP says in June 2025, the Ministry of Finance told the Public Accounts Committee that it had received an unsolicited proposal from an investor to construct schools and clinics and lease them to Government. According to reporting from the PAC proceedings, the proposed cost was about P36.4 million per school and P9.1 million per clinic, under a 17-year lease-to-own arrangement. The Permanent Secretary, Tshokologo Kganetsano, said the financial implications were substantial and that Government was not then in a position to borrow for the project. The ministry indicated a preference for scaling down the proposal and, if necessary, open competitive bidding.
The project subsequently re-emerged under the African Hero banner. The BRP therefore asks a pointed question: what changed? The party wants the documentary trail showing how the original proposal evolved into the present arrangement. It says this is particularly sensitive because African Hero identifies Boko as its founding chairman while Moti has been publicly described as the businessman behind the initiative. Recent reporting has also linked Moti to previous financial support for the UDC’s 2019 election campaign.
The BRP stops short, in its paper, of alleging that Boko personally profited from the project. Instead, it argues that the relationship creates a potential conflict-of-interest concern requiring heightened transparency.The party also questions the decision to name the flagship school after the sitting President. At the September launch, Government described the project as a demonstration of a new public-private infrastructure model. Boko said Government did not finance construction and had instead made available land that had remained undeveloped for years. Government would subsequently provide teachers, nurses and medicines and operate the facilities.
Moti, meanwhile, described African Hero as an initiative intended to accelerate construction of schools and clinics across Africa. Government has announced an ambition for the model to deliver 100 schools and 50 clinics in Botswana. The BRP, however, says construction is only the beginning of the financial equation. A school requires teachers, electricity, water, textbooks, security, maintenance, transport and ICT infrastructure.
The party therefore wants Government to publish the full lifetime cost of the facilities.
It also raises questions about claims that the wider programme could expose Botswana to more than P20 billion in long-term obligations. The BRP stresses that the figure cannot be independently verified without access to the underlying contracts, payment schedules, guarantees and other commitments.The party wants Parliament to establish whether the arrangement is a donation, procurement contract, public-private partnership, lease, concession or another legal structure. It is calling for a special parliamentary inquiry examining the original proposal, the Finance Ministry’s 2025 assessment, the subsequent financing model, beneficial ownership, land allocation, procurement procedures, Government’s operating costs and termination arrangements. The BRP further wants an independent value-for-money assessment and conflict-of-interest review.
Its position is that private financing should not exempt a project from public scrutiny once Government land, public employees, public services or potential future State obligations become involved. ‘Build the school. Build the clinic. But publish the contract, disclose the money, explain the obligations and let Parliament do its job,’ the party says.