South African tycoon Zunaid Moti's Botswana schools deal could cost taxpayers $1.5 billion

Botswana's main opposition party has accused the government of preparing to commit the country to more than 20 billion pula, about $1.49 billion, over the life of a schools and clinics programme linked to the South African businessman Zunaid Moti, for infrastructure the party says should cost roughly 3.6 billion pula, or about $268 million.

The Botswana Congress Party made the claim in a statement this week, days after President Duma Boko launched the first facility built under the programme in Gaborone on Saturday, Sept. 5. The party said the country must confront the possibility of state capture, the term used across southern Africa for the alleged takeover of state decision-making by private interests, according to the Gaborone newspaper Mmegi, which first reported the allegations on Tuesday, Sept. 8.

Parliament's Public Accounts Committee is now weighing whether to intervene. Taolo Lucas, the committee's chairman, told The Botswana Gazette that members will discuss the matter at a meeting next month and could decide "whether we could convene and summon the PS" over the arrangement.

The PS is Tshokologo Alex Kganetsano, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance and the ministry's most senior civil servant. Asked by the Gazette about the budget for the project, Kganetsano said he was unable to answer and referred the questions to the Ministry of Basic Education.

Dollar figures are Billionaires.Africa calculations at 13.42 pula to the dollar, the rate on Wednesday, Sept. 9.

What was launched

The facility opened on Sept. 5 is the Duma Boko School and Clinic, built in Block 7, a Gaborone suburb. It carries the president's name.

The developer is African Hero, an infrastructure organisation Moti established. African Hero is a project of Zotex Holdings, which is owned by the Moti Group, the Johannesburg-based conglomerate Moti founded. Jindal Energy is among the private-sector partners, and Naveen Jindal, chairman of the Indian group Jindal Steel and Power, attended the launch alongside Boko and Moti.

The construction method is the selling point. Buildings are assembled from prefabricated and converted shipping-container units, which cuts the time from groundbreaking to opening. Moti is separately financing a plant at Gabane, west of Gaborone, estimated at 2 billion pula, or about $149 million, to manufacture the components and allow the model to be repeated elsewhere. African Hero has described plans for 50 schools and 100 clinics on a 6.8-hectare site in Block 7.

The school and clinic will be staffed by government employees, and recruitment for the school began the Monday after the launch. Boko called the project a proof of concept and said he hopes to see hundreds of schools and clinics across Botswana and thousands across Africa. Mmegi reported that Malawi has enquired about as many as 450 schools.

Mmegi described the initiative as a public-benefit project carrying no government funding. That description sits directly against the BCP's claim of a 20 billion pula liability, and the gap between the two accounts is the heart of the dispute.

The rejection, and the return

The BCP's central question is procedural rather than architectural. The party says Kganetsano stated in 2025 that the Moti proposal was too costly and had been rejected by the Ministry of Finance, and it wants to know what changed between that decision and the project's reappearance, and who authorised the reversal. In its statement the party demanded that the person responsible be named.

The original proposal, according to Mmegi, envisaged a 17-year lease-to-own structure under which the developer builds the facilities and the state pays over time before taking ownership. The paper put the estimated cost at 36.4 million pula for a school, about $2.71 million, and 9.1 million pula for a clinic, roughly $678,000.

Lease-to-own arrangements are common in public infrastructure and are not improper in themselves. The cost depends on the interest rate embedded in the payment schedule and the length of the term, which is how a headline construction figure and a lifetime obligation can diverge as sharply as the BCP alleges. Neither the government nor African Hero has published the financial terms.

The party has asked Parliament to call a special sitting of the Public Accounts Committee, and said it would meet the cost itself if Parliament pleads a shortage of funds. Lucas said any decision to summon the permanent secretary rests with the committee as a whole.

Moti's history with the governing coalition

Moti financed the Umbrella for Democratic Change's 2019 general election campaign, when the coalition was in opposition, and senior figures in the movement have acknowledged that support publicly. Boko told Botswana media in 2023 that Moti gave him the money as a personal friend rather than as a donation to a party, and said he had turned to Moti because local businesses would not fund the opposition.

The UDC won the general election in October 2024, ending nearly six decades of rule by the Botswana Democratic Party, and Boko became president. Oarabile Motlaleng, the mayor of Gaborone, acknowledged Moti's earlier support for the UDC during a city council debate on the school project.

The relationship has drawn scrutiny before. In 2022, following South African media reporting on Moti's dealings in the region, the BCP raised state-capture concerns about the businessman's proximity to the UDC. Moeti Mohwasa, then the coalition's spokesman, dismissed the claims at the time and said the party had done nothing beyond accepting help.

Moti has faced adversarial reporting in South Africa. In 2023 the Moti Group obtained an order from Johannesburg High Court judge John Holland-Muter, granted in chambers without notice to the other side, requiring journalists at the investigative outlet amaBhungane to return leaked documents within 48 hours. The order was overturned on appeal in July 2023. Moti stepped down as chief executive of the Moti Group later that year and has said amaBhungane is pursuing a vendetta against him.

What has not been established

No investigation has found wrongdoing by Moti, African Hero, the Moti Group or any Botswana official in connection with the project. The BCP's case rests on the sequence it describes, a rejected proposal returning in larger form under a government whose leader received the businessman's money, rather than on documents it has published showing an improper instruction.

Neither Moti nor African Hero had publicly responded to the state-capture allegations in reporting available on Wednesday, Sept. 9. The Ministry of Basic Education, to which the finance ministry has directed questions about the budget, has not set out the terms. Boko has not addressed the opposition's figures.