The Leader of Opposition (LOO), Dumelang Saleshando says Batswana are dying not from a lack of funding, but from the collapse of public health delivery amid weak accountability.
Responding to the Budget Speech in Parliament on Wednesday Saleshando called for a moment of silence for patients he said had died preventable deaths in public hospitals, recounting cases in which families were asked to buy medicines privately while relatives lay in intensive care.
“Resources were allocated,” the LOO said. “But they did not save lives.”
Health received one of the largest allocations in the national budget last year, including emergency funding during a declared public health crisis. Yet Saleshando argued that shortages of medicines, gaps in staffing and opaque procurement practices have persisted, eroding public trust.
Saleshando framed the health crisis as symptomatic of a broader failure in governance. Spending, he said, remains disconnected from outcomes, with ministries funded based on inputs rather than measurable results. Performance-based budgeting, long discussed, remains largely absent.
He criticized the absence of a full audit of emergency health spending and warned that proposed government-to-government procurement arrangements, including a deal involving the United Arab Emirates, risk repeating patterns of non-transparent expenditure.
Saleshando framed the health crisis as symptomatic of a broader failure in governance. Spending, he said, remains disconnected from outcomes, with ministries funded based on inputs rather than measurable results. Performance-based budgeting, long discussed, remains largely absent.
Officials have acknowledged strain in the health system following the lapse of the public health emergency, pointing to procurement reforms and cost controls. But the LOO argued that without transparency and enforcement, such measures amount to little more than assurances.
“Free health care that does not function is not health care,” Saleshando said, urging Parliament to treat the budget as a “life-and-death decision” rather than a procedural exercise.
