Ndaba Gaolathe Warns Struggling State Enterprises Must Prove Their Value

Botswana’s state-owned enterprises are facing a potential overhaul, with restructuring or consolidation on the table for organisations that continue to lose money or fail to demonstrate value for public funding. Vice President and Finance Minister Ndaba Gaolathe says taxpayers cannot be expected to support underperforming entities indefinitely. Speaking at a consultation on the State-Owned Enterprise Ownership Policy in Francistown, Gaolathe pointed to gaps in financial information and oversight. He said recent fiscal-risk analysis found that data across the sector is fragmented, audited accounts are not always readily available, and government lacks a sufficiently consolidated picture of how the enterprises are performing. Those problems make it difficult to calculate the full cost of troubled parastatals. The latest Auditor General figures cited in the report put their accumulated deficits at P485.1 million by March 2023, slightly above the P483.3 million recorded a year earlier. The 2026/27 budget sets aside P16.1 billion in grants and subventions for parastatals and local authorities, with a large share intended for state enterprises. Several organisations have reported significant difficulties. Botswana Development Corporation recorded a P167 million loss for the year ending June 2025, while nearly half of its loan portfolio was classified as non-performing. Botswana Railways reported operating losses totalling P235 million between 2021 and 2024, including P60 million in 2024. The Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board told a parliamentary committee it had no board and owed suppliers about P66 million. Some farmers were reportedly waiting more than two years for payment. MPs have also raised concerns about the Botswana National Productivity Centre’s lack of a board and missing audited statements, while Air Botswana has fallen behind in financial reporting. Government injected about P500 million into the airline between 2021 and 2025. Gaolathe has previously told Parliament that only 14 of 45 assessed state enterprises complied with King III governance principles. The proposed ownership framework is expected to guide decisions on which organisations remain strategically necessary, which need restructuring and how their performance should be judged.