The Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), Air Botswana and BotswanaPost headline a list of parastatals struggling to pay government loans, with their collective debts last measured at P618 million.

According to the Auditor General’s latest report, which covers the year to March 2021, BMC owed government P248 million while the national airline was on the hook for P230 million and BotswanaPost P140 million.

In all three instances, the loans were made from government’s Public Service Debt Fund and date back several years. Bank of Botswana records show that BotswanaPost’s debt to government dates back to 2014–2015 and has gone without any repayments since then, while the BMC’s comprises two separate loans dating back to the 2019–2020 financial year. Air Botswana’s loan dates from 2018–2019.

The BMC and Air Botswana are amongst a long list of poor-performing state-owned entities, with Auditor General Pulane Letebele consistently noting that the parastatals are practically insolvent outside of government support.

Last December, government approved a P300 million guarantee loan to BMC from First

National Bank Botswana, while also extending part of the P248 million debt owed. The meat producer’s perennial troubles stem from low cattle throughput, frequent droughts and disease outbreaks as well as operational inefficiencies. The BMC’s finances show a string of losses dating back as far as seven years ago and government is hoping a partial privatisation and turnaround strategy will help the parastatal.

Air Botswana, meanwhile, has been allocated about P166 million in the upcoming financial year in government support to help its operating expenses and fleet. The latest funds follow a P100 million bail-out extended by government to the national airline in 2020 when local and regional movement COVID-19 restrictions worsened Air Botswana’s perennial financial troubles.

BotswanaPost has equally been fighting to stay afloat over the years, as its core postal business has been overtaken by technological advances. The parastatal has also run losses in recent years, including a P44.8 million in the year to March 2021. BotswanaPost’s fortunes are expected to darken as its lucrative agency contract with Botswana Savings Bank has ended.

“The increased agency business being handled by the company had been a major contributor to its positive change in financial performance,” Letebele noted in her report.