07 Apr 2025

The Assistant Minister of Health, Mr Lawrence Ookeditse says the Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS), who were charged with the collection of the alcohol levy since 2019, has collected a total of 

P4 006 029 956.16 since its inception.

Answering a question in Parliament on Thursday, he said it was worth noting that the ministry only received 10 per cent of the alcohol levy funds for the alcohol programmes and interventions, therefore, the expenditure report provided was only based on funds received by the ministry of health.

He said in 2018 to 2023, the ministry received P214 812 812.28 in alcohol levy funds and the total expenditure was P166 208 000.03.

The minister further stated that on tobacco levy, they received P196 731 157.94, adding that the financials for 2024 and 2025 have not been provided, as they have not been verified yet.

He said the number of individuals seeking and receiving treatment through the alcohol levy facilitation has grown steadily from 668 in 2017, to a cumulative figure of 3006 in 2023.

“It should be noted that substance use disorder was a chronic relapsing brain disease and clients continue to be in recovery and needing support, not only from the health sector but from families, communities and legislative support that aims at supply suppression and demand reduction on substance use,’ he said. 

Mr Ookeditse said for tobacco levy, the number of individuals in the rehabilitation programmes across non-governmental organisations that have been funded through the levy fund stands as 276. He said the ministry of health developed a strategic plan for alcohol and substance use in 2022, which was currently being implemented with the aim of providing harm reduction services for people affected by alcohol and other substances.

The assistant minister said most people with substance use disorders required outpatient services, which were offered at psychiatric clinics in the hospitals.

He said it was for this reason that they are constructing an in-patient rehabilitation centre at old Sekgoma Memorial Hospital Institute of Health Sciences in Serowe, which was expected to be operational in the third quarter of 2025.

The centre, which will have 50 beds comprising of 30 for adults, 20 males, 10 females and 20 for adolescents who will be 10 boys and 10 girls will offer inpatient and out-patient services, he said.

Similarly, he said, the ministry through tobacco levy implementation committees has set aside P 60 million to establish a rehabilitation center where the ministry of health has identified need. ENDS