In 2024, President Duma Boko asked Batswana to judge his new administration on its ability to restore trust, diversify the economy and improve public services. In 2025, those priorities acquired programmes and targets. The 2026 State of the Nation Address gives us an opportunity to ask which of those commitments have made a difference.
There are results worth recognising. Statistics Botswana recorded a 56.6% year-on-year increase in domestic electricity generation in the second quarter of 2026. The forensic audit promised in 2024 was commissioned in 2025, and a summary of its findings was published in 2026. The President also reported that 567 previously started homes had been completed and handed over. For the families who moved in, that is a real improvement.
The 2025 address set a target of 100,000 homes in three years and reported that 5,880 units had already been started. The abridged 2026 address gives examples of handovers and new starts, but it does not reconcile those figures or give a cumulative completion total against the original target.
What remains difficult is judging delivery against the original targets. The 2025 address set a target of 100,000 homes in three years and reported that 5,880 units had already been started. The abridged 2026 address gives examples of handovers and new starts, but it does not reconcile those figures or give a cumulative completion total against the original target. The same difficulty arises with employment. The President reported thousands of temporary public workers moving into permanent posts, while the wider economic transformation programme still needs a clear count of new jobs created.
Government could make its record easier to assess by publishing the same figures each year for the same commitments. How many homes have been handed over? How many new permanent jobs have been created? How many audit referrals have been resolved, and how much has been recovered? If a target has changed, the public deserves the revised figure and the reason. Three addresses in, citizens should be able to follow a promise from the year it was made to the year it was delivered.
