Kutlo Motseta
16th December 2025
The Minister of Higher Education Prince Maele has announced the new University of Botswana (UB) Council.
It had become a sensitive issue as the public became impatient with the delay. Maele was very firm with the newly appointed University Council and made it very clear that the university must complete its proposed restructuring process speedily.
“The elephant in the room, is the UB restructuring … it’s taken five years … I summoned the university last week to find out what’s happening with the restructuring. I have given them till the 31st March 2026 to finish. If it’s not done by the 31st March, either the Vice Chancellor will have to home or I will dissolve the council, if it’s not done… I am not threatening but heads must roll. I have them given them a date in the first week of April to brief me,” said Maele.
The Minister advised the council to stick to their council duties and not get involved in operational matters. He also warned that there are decisions that they will have to ratify, which were taken whilst the council was inoperative.
He further advised the council to also focus on fund raising, saying, “I have always said to my universities that they must have a third stream of income”.
Permanent Secretary to the Minister, Professor Richard Tabulwa, who was in the previous council humorously responded to his boss when asked to comment by the Council Chair, Dr Daniel Tau:
“When you are outside … you think things are easier. I used to wonder why it took so long to appoint the Council. But when I got here, I realized that it is a painstaking process. You have to examine the names with a lens and it take them to the cabinet and that takes a long time,” said Tabulwa.
Dr Tau also attempted to lighten the light mood saying.
“He’s going to get disappointed (the minister) I am going to make it a point that he doesn’t fire any of us” said Professor Tau.
Also speaking on behalf of the council, Professor Ndzinge said they accepted the ministers challenge.
“The minister has challenged us in a serious way, we have to rise to the occasion and indeed we cannot afford to fail … to make sure that this University rises higher … and also in the international community,” said Ndzinge.
Given the backlog that they face, Professor Tau said the new council would have to hit the ground running when the appointments take effect on the 1st January 2026.
“We were quite worried that our council did not function from April … three quarters of 2025 and 2026 … financial statements were not seen by audit committee because there was no overseeing committee, so they could not be done,” he said.
The Vice chancellor provided further justification for the delayed restructuring process, explaining that funding challenges incapacitated the university making it difficult to fulfil its broad statutory obligations.
“The minister has been talking about restructuring that has taken a long time, but things have to be done …. In 2017/2018 we reflected whether we are delivering on these functions, it was glaring evident we were not. We were only providing teaching services,” said Professor David Norris, UB Vice Chancellor.
He said, “It was time to change to course we had to do it quickly. 90% of our budget went to wages very little went to core business of university.”
The Vice Chancellor said restructuring was comprehensive process and the university is in the process of reconfiguring the management and the faculties. As a result of the process the vice chancellor believes the university will produce multi-disciplinary research. He also highlighted that the university had improved their performance in the renowned Times University Rankings. He added that UB was one of the 3 000 universities that accepted for ranking, out of the 20 000 that had applied.
The new council comprises: Chairperson, Dr Daniel Tau (former chair of Botswana Open University): Mr. Edwin Ellias (CEO of Morupule), Dr Shabani Ndzinge (financial and cooperate governance expert), Mr. Onalethata Kaambai (senior partner at Kambai Attorneys; and former deputy chairperson of Law Society of Botswana), Mr. Tibatso Ricardo Seabua (senior partner at Seabua Attorneys), Mr Phatswe, Mr. Taolo Thabo Mpolokang (IT expert), Dr Audrey Maasizana (immediate head of computer science department), Dr Chilinde Molausi (managing director of the UB clinic) and the vice chancellor Professor David Norris.
