The UDC led government must stop hiding behind officials and accept responsibility for a failure of the entire system. The BDP strongly condemns the UDC government’s attempt to make the Director of the Department of Road Transport and Safety a scapegoat for the public transport fares increase gazette controversy.
President Duma Boko, in his Easter message, acknowledged that Government Gazette Notice
No. 307 of 2026 was issued “without verification and authorisation” from the proper leadership structures. That admission is important. But what is even more important is this; such a serious national error cannot honestly be blamed on one Director and one Assistant Secretary alone. Batswana and Botswana must not be misled.
For ordinary citizens, the process is actually simple to understand. A fuel or transport fare adjustment is not like sending an office memo or typing a letter. It is a formal government decision with legal effect on the entire country. That kind of decision normally moves through several stages; technical analysis, review by the Ministry, submission to Cabinet, Cabinet decision, legal drafting, ministerial or permanent secretary sign-off, and then publication in the Government Gazette. In simple terms, many hands touch such a decision before it becomes law. One person does not wake up and change national fares alone. That is why the UDC government’s explanation does not make sense.
If Cabinet had already decided that Christmas was not the right time to implement the increase, as the President himself said, then how did the wrong notice still move through the system and get published? Where was the Permanent Secretary? Where was the Minister? Where was the legal verification? Where were the internal controls? Where was the final sign-off that should protect the public from exactly this kind of mistake?
A Director is part of a system. He is not the system.
When government works properly, responsibility follows authority. Those with the greatest power must carry the greatest accountability. That is how serious governments function. That is how mature states protect the public. That is how Botswana has always been expected to operate. The real issue here is not just an error in a gazette. The real issue is what the error reveals; a government that is either failing to communicate internally, failing to supervise properly, or now trying to protect senior political leadership by blaming officials lower down the chain. None of those possibilities inspire confidence. This is why the BDP says the UDC must stop spinning, stop hiding, and stop blaming one individual for what is clearly a systemic failure.
The President said the matter was “deeply disturbing.” We agree. But what is even more disturbing is the attempt to make the public believe that such a fundamental mistake happened in isolation. Botswana deserves the truth, not a convenient story. This matter goes to the heart of governance. A government that cannot manage its own approval chain, cannot control the publication of a legal notice, and cannot give the nation a full and honest account of what went wrong, is showing Batswana that it does not yet understand the seriousness of governing. Leadership is not
about finding someone small enough to blame. Leadership is about accepting responsibility, correcting failure, and fixing the system.
The BDP has experience in government, and that experience teaches a simple lesson which is that
before a decision affects the public, the process must be watertight. Decisions must be checked. Authority must be clear. Documentation must be aligned. Accountability must be shared according to role and seniority. That is not politics. That is basic governance. What Batswana are seeing here is not just an administrative error. It is an error of judgment, an error of supervision, and now an error of honesty in how the matter is being presented.
The UDC must accept that it made a mistake in judgment. It must stop pretending this was the work of one person acting alone. It must stop trying to cover up a failure of the broader system. And it must give the nation a full explanation of the chain of responsibility, from ministry leadership to political oversight. Anything less would be unfair to the suspended officials, dishonest to the public, and dangerous for public trust.
As the BDP, we believe Botswana deserves a government that does not panic in crisis, does not
hide behind officers, and does not confuse public relations with accountability. Government must
work. Systems must work. And when they fail, the truth must work too.
Issued by:
𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥
𝐁𝐎𝐓𝐒𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐀 𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐂 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐘
