Kutlo Motseta
28th May 2025
President Advocate Duma Boko told Tlokweng residents at the Tlokweng Main Kgotla he had heard their concerns about dilapidated conditions of schools and government’s delay in connecting running water in residential plots and the need for a dual carriage road in the village.
Speaking in Setswana for an hour, the president who has been a Tlokweng resident for the past 20 years, spoke with warmth about his stay.
He emphasised his mandate: “I am ‘low’ in terms of ‘status’, I am lower than you because you have sent me … I accept the task … the job that you have assigned me to do, there are certain developments that you want,” he said.
“I want you to label those things … ‘human rights,” he said.
A former university lecturer and experienced human practitioner, he lectured about the meaning of human rights.
“The most important right, is the right to life. Some people think that the right to life means living and breathing, regardless of your living conditions … in relation to that, the right to life means that your humanity and dignity should be respected … That’s when we say that you should live with the necessary amenities that you need to make a living and have access to education,” said Boko.
He acknowledged the deplorable condition of education facilities.
Boko acknowledged, “Schools are in a bad state. I saw them in Maun, they are shocking, there are many clever children, but when you look at the class rooms and the conditions under which they learn … it is embarrassing.”
He implored the public to focus on human rights and admonish the state when it tramples on them. Failure of which can lead to tyranny and the corresponding loss of dignity.
“You should start by taking yourselves seriously, and realise that there are things, which should not happen to you. Because you will be disrespected and the government will also trample on you. The government is meant to protect people from being undermined, by safeguarding their human rights.”
He further said that the rule of law is sacred and so are socio- economic rights, which include the universal right to water, food, social security, which all enable people to live a dignified life.
He promised to improve community public workers allowances. Raising ‘Ipelegeng’ salaries by about 400% to P2,500. ‘Ipelegeng’ is a temporary unemployment program from citizens.
He justified raising the pensioners allowances from P830 to P,1400 – which took effect in April – despite the difficulty his staff had in finding a solution to do so, stressing the important roles that elderly people play in communities such as facilitating at weddings, funeral, raising children, grand-children and passing down traditional customs, thereby acting as tribal custodians.
“I promise that the that we will get to P1,800 [for pensioners]. But this is not the destination [P1,800] but a signpost,” said Boko. And also made the same statement about ‘Ipelegeng’ workers.
He spoke about the border concerns that he raised with President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa.
“We spoke about the way the border custom laws affect Botswana citizens … if a person overstays for a day, they are banned for 12 months. If you arrive at the border poster without a permit for a corpse you get sent back to the mortuary … he was surprised and we agreed that these are things that we have to fix,” said Boko.
The president said that he wants to improve the railway transport efficiency in the country.
He wants to ensure that Air Botswana works efficiently, make it cheaper to travel by air than by road from Gaborone to Francistown and to turn Botswana into the best airport hub in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
He said that he wants Botswana Meat Cooperation (BMC) to work efficiently by the end of the year and pay clients within five days and the Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board (BAMB) to pay all outstanding debt to clients by the end of the year.
To the laughter of the audience, he humorously explained the importance of his international trade and diplomatic travels.
“I travelled the world before I became president … I don’t know about you … or others … so when I travel … I go straight there … I get what I want … and I come back,” said Boko.
He urged Batswana to work on their entrepreneurial skills and promised that the state would help to develop the farmer’s market.
“The problem is not Choppies but your entrepreneurial skills … look for a market! Farmer’s can sell at farmers ‘Trade fairs’ or ‘Farmers markets’ … you don’t need to sell at Choppies … I want to focus on captive markets[thereby creating a guaranteed buyer for farmers through government]… We can export the excess market supply to Congo,” said Boko.
He further pledged that that the government would create bakeries for women to decrease their reliance on shops and improve the national health care service delivery by remote medical consultation through technology.
Boko said, “We are going to arrange for medical digital services so that clients can consult doctors from their homes via video conferencing and get prescriptions to get medication through social media services, which they can collect form pharmacies … and digitally centralise national patient medical records so patients can access their medical records anywhere in the country when they consult government health practitioners.”
Boko revealed that Government wants to use artificial intelligence to respond to crime timeously. This technology is already available at Police stations.
“We are embarking on a National Transformation Plan, not a National Development Plan, this plan will be rolled out in parliament in November,” said Boko.
As a legal practitioner, he had gained a lot of experience representing clients with shocking tender complaints. He had learnt a lot in this area of law and vouched that corrupt tender would not be tolerated during his tenure in office.
