GIFT OR DEAL? Moti’s Friday video still fails to explain what many Batswana are questioning.

In this article, JOE-BROWN TLHASELO argues that Zunaid Moti’s latest video is less about clarity and more about defiance, mocking critics while still leaving contradictions unresolved.

Zunaid Moti’s latest video in Botswana is best understood as a performance of defiance, a face‑saving measure against the swirl of suspicion that has followed him since the launch of the Duma Boko School and Clinic in Gaborone last weekend.

His language is combative, dismissive, and deliberately provocative. He frames those curious about the deal as silly, labeling their doubts “stupid comments” and “crazy insinuations.” Such is not the language of a man seeking reconciliation, but of one trying to seize control of the narrative by ridiculing those who question the motives around his noble project.

This tone mirrors his speech at the school’s launch, where he bluntly told the crowd that people were “speaking nonsense.” That phrase has become a refrain in his public defense: the idea that opposition voices are not just wrong but laughably absurd. By ridiculing them, he attempts to shift the conversation from the substance of the doubts, which is whether his project is philanthropy or a calculated business deal, to the supposed foolishness of those raising them. It is a rhetorical strategy that seeks to delegitimize criticism by mocking it rather than engaging with it.

The context is important. The Duma Boko School and Clinic, unveiled in Block 7, Gaborone, can host 380 learners and handle 288 daily consultations. Built from prefabricated units under the African Hero initiative, the project was presented as a gift to Botswana. In the video, Moti reiterates that the government paid nothing, and that the project is donor-funded.

The project, he says, does not “pose any requirement on government to put money out there to build it and erect the school and clinic. What it does do, it puts a lot of pressure on industry, donors, entrepreneurs, corporate sponsors and philanthropists to be able to put their money where their mouth is, and also, where their hearts are to be able to give back to the people of Botswana.”

Yet Moti himself complicated that narrative last weekend by insisting that government gave him nothing to build it, while also admitting he expects payment later, even if it takes years for the payment to be made.

What Moti seems to miss is that this contradiction is the one that has fueled the confusion that seeks to know if then, the project is a donation or a deferred commercial arrangement. Unfortunately his three-minute video still fails to clear the air on why he says the school and clinic are a gift, yet he has also said he expects payment later. The video simply repeats what is already known but does not dispel the suspicions already raised.

Media reports have been suggesting that the Ministry of Finance had already rejected his earlier proposal to build schools and clinics under a lease‑to‑own model, citing costs of P9.1 million per clinic and P36.4 million per school as too high. Many now refer to that rejection and ask how the deal eventually happened. Many speculate that the rejection must have set the stage for the project to be somehow pursued outside formal government channels, but the lingering question of who pays, and how, remains unresolved.

Not many dispute that the projects are a necessity. Not many have any doubts that the school and clinic bring about state of the art amenities. Not many even question the materials used for building the school and clinic although there is curiosity over how long the material will last. It is the unanswered question of why then government has to pay later after delivery.

Moti’s reputation adds weight to the skepticism, as seen from commentary on social media and heard from corridor talk. As founder of the Johannesburg‑based Moti Group, he has faced allegations of fraud and corruption in South Africa and Zimbabwe, though he has publicly denied wrongdoing. His ventures include African Chrome Fields in Zimbabwe and luxury projects in South Africa. Many refer to reports that he has been arrested before, experiences that continue to shadow his public image.  When one journalist pointed to this out to him last weekend, he gestured at personal transformation, admitting that like everybody else, he has had his bad deeds, that yes he did not have a good past, but now he looked forward to a new future with Botswana. Social media highlighted this with skepticism, with many saying the admission is meant to soften his image. It does not help that he now pairs that with the same sharp dismissal of critics, reinforcing the sense that he is more interested in silencing doubt than addressing it.

His ties to Botswana’s political landscape deepen the intrigue. Moti financed the Umbrella for Democratic Change during the 2019 elections and beyond. This is a coalition led by his bosom buddy, Advocate Duma Boko. That connection has led many to wonder whether the school and clinic are acts of philanthropy or political investment and payback. President Boko, who officiated at the launch, also insists that government has not paid Moti and that he will not do business with him. Yet the “naysayers’as Boko labeled them, add that the land for the school was provided by government, a detail that complicates the claim of independence.

The nation is even more irked by additions from ministers who have stepped in to defend Moti. Labour minister Pius Mokgware ridiculed Batswana as a thankless people who “cry” for developments and jobs but then turn around to shun them. On the other hand, housing and water minister Onneetse Ramogapi reiterated the notion that the school is a donation, asking rhetorically “what is wrong with a donation,” but without explaining the contradiction in Moti’s own words.

Many trying to defend Moti have pointed to Satar Dada, whom they say during the BDP era has  donated clinics and other amenities to government without being questioned by anybody the way it is done with Moti – the “UDC’s own Dada” as Gaborone City Mayor Motlaleng so famously declared at the City Council Chamber when having a heated exchange with Councilor Sejoe of Phakalane. But others were quick to remind such thinkers that Dada’s donations left no doubts in anybody’s minds that they were straightforward gifts, and he never spoke of expecting payment later.

Against this backdrop, Moti’s video this Friday is less about explaining the deal than about ridiculing those who doubt it. By calling opposition voices “stupid” and their insinuations “crazy,” he positions himself as a benefactor misunderstood by petty detractors.

The result is a performance of bravado: a businessman many say has a checkered past, standing in Botswana, insisting that his critics are silly, stupid, crazy and talking nonsense. Whether this strategy convinces the public is another matter. For now, the video serves as a reminder that in the politics of image, as often seen here in Botswana, ridicule can be as much a weapon as reassurance, but it has not cleared the contradictions at the heart of this project, and the suspicions remain.

The only way the “silly” critics can truly be silenced is if government demonstrates, in unequivocal terms, that not a single thebe will ever be paid back for these projects as both President Boko and Moti have have been insinuating that the schools and clinics are mere donations, not some form of deferred commercial arrangements.

If that message can be made crystal clear, not through vague video messages and ambiguous speeches, but through transparent action, then the narrative changes completely, and our president and investor can finally see that Batswana are indeed a thankful nation contrary to what minister Mokgware wants us to believe. If the promise of ‘donation’as declared by minister Ramogapi is upheld in unequivocal terms, then the narrative shifts from controversy to relief and celebration.

In fact, the bravado of Moti’s video would then fade into the background, replaced by the tangible reality of classrooms filled with children and clinics serving communities without cost to the taxpayer. May such donations therefore continue to spread across Botswana, especially in rural areas where facilities are most needed, so that the prevailing controversy may give way to an enduring legacy of accessible education and healthcare built not on suspicion, but on generosity, making Moti and Boko true African Heroes!