Boko's flagship parastatals stall
Air Botswana and Botswana Railways (BR) have delivered a stinging rebuke to President Advocate Duma Boko’s bold pledge, exposing cracks in his promise that four parastatals would be revived to profitability and serving Batswana by December 2025.
The four entities are Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), Air Botswana, Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board (BAMB) and Botswana Railways. Although not having fulfilled what the president desired, BMC and BAMB made slight improvements showing progress albeit at a snail’s pace.
However, the critical transport entities Air Botswana and Botswana Railways have dismally failed to meet the president’s target which he boldly declared during one of his Kgotla meetings in May 2025.
The Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) government has taken a bold step to make Botswana a Southern African regional transport hub. The national airliner and Botswana Railways are expected
to play key roles in realising this dream.
President Adv. Boko said during the Kgotla meeting in Tlokweng last year May: “at Air Botswana, we have found experts who will help us revive it. They were there just for six hours, and they have expressed shock at how the Airliner has been operating.
“They told me that Botswana has an advantage over other countries in Southern Africa. Botswana is the centre, whether you want to travel North, South, East or West. We are geographically in a good space.”
The highly decorated Air Botswana Board of Management, which is mandated to turn around the national airliner, was late last year fingered in what insiders called a clear-cut conflict of interest.
The Board was appointed on 1st May 2025 and publicly announced on 12 May 2025. It is alleged that since its appointment, only one formal Board meeting has been held. An induction session took place from 5–6 June 2025.
They are allegedly resolute in breaking Botswana Acts and Regulations such as Air Botswana Act, PPRA Act, Employment Act and possibly Income Tax Act, including internal policies, despite having an in-house Legal Advisor.
The national airliner however, argued that Air Botswana’s Board of Directors asserts its comprehensive mandate to restore institutional stability and robust governance across the airline.
“In strict discharge of its statutory and fiduciary responsibilities, the Board has commenced a structured and intensive review of the Airline’s governance, compliance, financial controls, and operational frameworks.
This work is being executed in alignment with applicable legislation, the SOE Governance Policy and recognised principles of good corporate governance,” Air Botswana defended itself in response to media enquiry.
However, nothing tangible has been presented before the set deadline to prove its case and nothing on the ground practically shows the entity and the board are on course.
Botswana Railways on the other hand has stalled executing its assignment due to the back and forth infighting within the board and the executive management. There have been several changes of board members and the General Manager.
The financially struggling BR has changed General Managers on many occasions with most not serving more than three months. Towards the end of 2025, the BR Board Chairperson Wincey Ramaphoi was fired by the Acting Minister of Transport and Infrastructure and the caretaker Manager Dominic Ntwaagae was also removed from office after the board failed to secure ministerial
approval for his confirmation from Minister of Transport & Infrastructure Noah Salakae in December 2025.
The troubled Botswana Railways board of directors has appointed Okitanye Gaogane as the new Caretaker General Manager (GM) for a tenure of up to one-year, effective 29 December 2025. It remains to be seen whether Gaogane will survive the ever-brewing storm at BR. BR has not made any progress ever since the president revealed the set target.