The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Must I pay so much?

I'm a government employee having a loan which is currently deducting P12,000 monthly, but when I sought for a settlement its even higher than the loan balance. I'm currently going through a rough phase of life, I just wanted a resolution. Can't they help me with installment reduction or revisit they way they calculate their installments?

My loan balance sits at P607,000 and the settlement was estimated to P649,000. I started the loan in 2022 and I cleared a bank loan of P249k with it. I took topups in between and now I'm struggling.

Mainly I really need their help with installment reduction to P2,500 so I can care for my child and be able to pay rent I've sent them a message on Facebook and pleaded with humbleness that they help me.

They said that I should go to the nearest branch and meet the manager. When I got there I laid my case. The manager told me the loan needs restructuring but by the look of things I have to pay P30,000 to reduce the loan balance to be able to be helped with restructuring. Please sir help me communicate with them please concerning this I'm really going through a lot.

Unfortunately there's no goods news I can offer you. No lender would ever consider dropping the monthly instalments from P12,000 to P2,500 for one simple reason. It would take more than 20 years to repay a loan of P607,000 with monthly payments of P2,500. And that's if there are no problems, defaults or delays. They'll never agree to that. They want their money in the next 4 years, the time you agreed with them.

Meanwhile I understand that your situation is desperate. I'll send you details of a trusted debt counsellor who you must go and see. They'll do their best to restructure your debts in a way you can afford.

They sold me a worn out car!

I'm so stressed and I need your help. I bought a car in Durban sometimes in December. I managed to collect the car this week but the car is worn out. I spoke to those who I was buying the car from back in Durban. Now they are so reluctant to help yet they gave me a car which I think was involved in some accidents. There are a number of faults in it. The radio requires a code but they know nothing about it. It was their duty to check if everything was ok before loading the car n communicate if the condition of the car was not okay.

I paid them a deposit and had to pay the remaining balance of P15,000 to an account they gave me, it is a Botswana account. They sent an invoice through WhatsApp. The receipt was written low amount because they claimed that if they wrote the exact amount, BURS was going to charge me a lot.

Is there any help I can get?

There are several problems here. Firstly, you have a cross-border complication. Who do you complain to? The consumer protection authorities in South Africa or here in Botswana? If you need to buy a car from overseas it's always worth going through an agent based here in Botswana so you have someone who will take responsibility here, not in another country if there's a problem.

There is a slight hope because you paid some of the money to an account here. Whose account was it?

Finally, and perhaps the most worrying thing is BURS. If you and the seller knowing falsified documents about the value of the vehicle, you need to confess to BURS immediately. They're much more likely to be forgiving if you confess before they catch you. I suggest you call them as soon as possible and ask for their help.

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

I need a refund!

I request your assistance regarding a matter involving a car dealership, where I purchased a vehicle but have yet to take delivery of it, despite having paid the full amount of P65,000. In March 2025, I paid a deposit for the purchase of a car. Shortly thereafter, I was informed that the car had been loaded and I was required to pay the balance, which I did. However, three months have now passed, and I still have not received the vehicle. Throughout this time, I have been given numerous and inconsistent explanations for the delay. At different points, I was told that the vehicle was being registered, but the system was down. Then the car was undergoing valuation. Then the delay was due to clearance issues at CID. Then the vehicle could not be valued at BURS because of discrepancies in the invoice amount and there were BURS raids affecting the process. Despite all these explanations, the car remains undelivered. I have personally gone to inspect it, and it is indeed parked and gathering dust. I was initially told that the car would be delivered within five working days, a promise that has not been fulfilled, three months later.

I am now left with two options, that I be refunded, or the dealer urgently resolves the issues and delivers the vehicle. I would appreciate your advice on how best to proceed.

I contacted the owner of the dealership and, to her credit, they responded very quickly. They explained that there had been problems with BURS but promised that your car would be delivered next week. Please let me know what happens? Let's hope they keep their promise.

Where's my refund?

I have a concern regarding an iPhone 13 Pro Max I purchased on 6 June 2025. From the moment I received it, the screen was shaking and appeared faulty. I immediately raised this with the staff, and I was informed it was a software issue. They updated the software, and the phone seemed fine for a short while. However, the problem recurred the following day, and I contacted the store again. They once more claimed it was a software issue, performed an update, and returned the phone to me.

On 17 June 2025, while I was using WhatsApp, the screen suddenly displayed lines, indicating an internal screen problem. I rushed back to the store to report this. One of the staff members told me it was physical damage, despite the fact that the screen has no cracks or signs of external impact. I was told that I may have sat on it or dropped it—neither of which is true.

They took the phone for diagnosis, which they said would take 7 days. After discussing the matter with my sister, we returned to the store to request a refund, but after waiting for over two hours, I was told the refund would take 21 working days to process.

I am kindly requesting your assistance, I believe I am entitled to a quicker resolution.

This store has missed something important. Section 16 of the Consumer Protection Act says that a supplier who sells a faulty item must, if it's returned within six months, repair it, replace it or refund the customer. It's important to understand that the supplier can decide which option they prefer. However, what they often forget is that if they repair it and the same fault happens again within three months, they lose the right to repair it again. They can now only replace it or refund you.

So all these excuses about physical damage don't mean a thing. But the good news is that I think they realize they've done you wrong. That's probably why they finally offered you the refund. Eventually. Let me know what happens?

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Must we be interviewed?

(This message came from a lady who had recently lost her husband. After lengthy battles with her medical aid, her husband finally passed away a few months ago. Then she tried to obtain benefits from his pension scheme.)

With regards to insurance policies. Must a tax clearance for the deceased be submitted before the insurance is paid out to the family? After the insurance company had me running around for over 2 months with different documents all the time changing requirements. I eventually managed to submit and then they come back with this. Now they want to interview me and our daughter? She is in university overseas. She is also going to Europe in a couple of weeks so for her to come to Gabs is not going to happen until December. When my husband completed the forms he left 50% to each of us, why now must we prove that we need the money?

Firstly, I'm so sorry for your loss and for the struggles you and other bereaved relatives must endure after a tragic loss. I know insurance companies have procedures to follow but they often make a difficult situation even more difficult.

Yes, I believe that BURS insist that pension providers check whether someone owes tax before they pay out. That's the simple question. The second question is more complicated. Does the insurance company really need to interview you and your daughter before making the payments? I didn't know the answer to this but it struck me as surprising. So rather than guessing I asked a former colleague who's an expert. This is what he said:

"It's normal. The Retirement Funds Act allow members and pensioners to nominate Dependants as a guide to the Trustees. However, it also allows to Trustees to vary the content of any nomination form if there is any information that the Trustees come across that warrants that.

Members and dependants get upset when they hear that but it's actually designed to protect dependants. The examples I always give are when a young couple with 1 child nominate their child as the sole dependant and they go on to have other kids but forget to update the forms (which is very common). If both of them pass away, it would not be fair to leave out the other sibling dependants simply because the parents forgot to update their nomination forms.

Another example is where couple gets divorced and move on to start new families. If one of them passes away (the lady for instance) leaving small kids behind and forgets to update their form to remove the ex-husband, it would not be right to simply pay it over to the gent who will go on a holiday with his new wife and kids. These are very real (and actual) examples but more often than not, the benefits will be paid according to the nomination form that was completed.

Where no nomination form was completed the simplest thing is to get a family resolution certified by any Tribal Authority, District Commissioner etc, confirming who the dependants are."

Can he recover my money?

A few days ago I tried to trade through another person I met on Facebook. Initially I deposited P2,000 then P2,700 through Yellowcard. Later he changed the story to say the returns made after trading are too high, around P105,000 and needs around P9,000 to download software. I stopped trading.

Yesterday I discovered a page on Facebook called Yellow Card Recovery and they promised to follow up my issue cos I felt like the other guy wanted to scam me. I received email from the recovery page and he promised to recover my money. I was humbly asking if you can assist me to confirm if this is genuine. Thank you in advance.

I'm really sorry to tell you this but I suspect you know it already. You've been scammed and you're about to be scammed again. The first guy was obviously lying when he promised you P105,000 but this second guy who has offered to recover your original P4,700 is also lying to you. There is no way to recover money from scammers. They're criminals, no different to muggers in the street. Like muggers, they don't offer refunds.

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Is this a real loan?

I have read your articles with keen interest and I am convinced you are doing a great job.

I would therefore like to inquire if I can forward some details of a so called international lending financial institution to authenticate before a lot of Batswana fall victims. I have personally applied for the Loan of BWP1 000 000 which has been approved but ought to be released with strings attached to it. They said “We can give you this loan on a 120 months requirement with an interest rate of 2% per year”. I doubted the authenticity just looking at the e-mail addresses which I feel anybody can create (france.vousfinancer@gmail.com) and the manner in which the simplicity of the Loan was approved albeit without any hassles that you might expect for the Loan amounting to that tune.

Please kindly look at this and should you be willing to help I will forward you the details and my limited luck whilst trying to establish if the financial institution was fake or true through an Embassy in Botswana.

You are very wise to be skeptical about this loan offer. I wish more people checked these things before committing themselves.

This is without doubt the beginning of an advance fee scam. There are various clues that suggest this. Firstly, you were right to notice the email address. Real lenders use credible email addresses. They don’t operate from Gmail addresses, they use their own domain. Secondly, real lenders don’t lend vast amounts of money to people they’ve never met in the flesh and have only spoken to by email. They certainly don’t lend money at only 2% per year. None of this adds up.

If you were to proceed with this fake loan, you will certainly be asked to send the lender money before you receive the money they’re promising you. They’ll say it’s for a legal bill, an account opening fee or some other excuse. Whatever it is, that’s the “advance fee” that gives the scam its name. That’s what it’s all about.

Please, whatever you do, don’t send these scumbags any money. You’ll never see it again. Remember that scammers don’t offer refunds!

They didn’t pay my tax!

Please advise. I have a registered company and my company was owing annual tax returns while I was in South Africa in 2014. When I came back in 2015 I found that it had incurred penalties so I started paying them in installments to my company secretary. The 2014 returns and 2015 returns as well as penalties totaled to about P2,500.

Unfortunately the company secretary's did not pay my annual returns and used the money on their personal matters, so my company is still owing. 2016 tax returns will be due soon and 2014 and 2015 have not been settled, Its been a year and they always promising "we'll settle it next week" but never do... What can I do, please help.

Firstly, I think you should report this issue to BURS. It won’t help to pay your tax liabilities but it might warn BURS that these so-called company secretaries can’t be trusted. They might also be understanding about your situation and will likely agree to a repayment schedule you can manage.

You should then write the so-called Company Secretaries a letter saying that they no longer have permission to act on your behalf and that you demand that they compensate you for any losses you have suffered as a result of their failure to honour their contractual obligations. I suggest you tell them NOT to pay anything to BURS but to repay it to you directly so you can be sure BURS get paid. Give them 14 days to repay you and state very clearly that you will take immediate legal action against them if they fail to do so.

On Day 15, if they fail to repay you, go immediately to the Small Claims Court with all the paperwork you have and ask for an order against them for the money you lost.

Hopefully this might encourage them to do the decent thing. If it doesn’t visit your local police station and lay a charge of obtaining by false pretense against these crooks. That might shake them up a bit.

Consumer Alert - "Download Your eTAX e-Statement Report"

We received an email entitled "Download Your eTAX e-Statement Report" that appeared to come from BURS, the Botswana Unified Revenue Service.

Attached to the email was a file named burs.zip that contained a Windows program called monthlyreport.exe.

You must not open the zip file.

You must not run the program that it contains.

If you did run the program please tell me what it did.

The program could easily do damage to your computer and its contents.

Consider yourself warned. When did you last update your anti-virus software?

I don't understand BURS

Why has BURS, the Botswana Unified Revenue Service, decided to make life even more difficult for businesses to operate? Surely these days they should be making life simpler, not more difficult? Surely their job is to make it easier, quicker and cheaper to pay your taxes rather than slower, more expensive and much more bloody irritating?

I simply don’t understand two recent decisions by our otherwise sensible tax authority.

Firstly they’ve instructed all taxpaying companies who pay rent to withhold 5% of their rent and pay that directly to BURS instead of the landlord. I know why they’re doing this of course, it’s obvious. There are landlords out there that aren’t declaring their rental income and evading paying tax on it. That’s why they’re making tenants identify their landlords when they pay this 5% to BURS. But why are BURS making life even more difficult for the law-abiding, rent-paying tenants rather then the tax-evading landlords?

There was a story in South Africa recently about a food poisoning incident in Rustenburg. I think it’s relevant. According to News 24,:

“(a) restaurant owner faces a charge of attempted murder after 18 customers were treated for suspected poisoning … Police swiftly responded to a call when 18 victims passed out as a result of eating food they bought from a restaurant at the Rustenburg taxi rank.”

I’m not sure if attempted murder is the right charge but whether it is or not I bet the standards of hygiene at the Rustenburg bus rank are excellent these days. Just the thought of prosecution for attempted murder is enough to ensure excellent standards.

So why aren’t BURS doing the same thing instead of this silly withholding business? Why aren’t they coming down on naughty landlords like the proverbial ton of bricks? The irony is that BURS already has a reputation for toughness. I spoke to a friend who operates a large business employing over 1,000 people and he said he wouldn’t dare try and outsmart BURS. They’re way too scary to try fooling. He pays his taxes without fail.

All it would take is for a few landlords to be prosecuted for tax evasion and I promise you that landlords across the country would become the most law-abiding business people.

OK, another problem. Even sillier than the 5% withholding tax is another new rule that BURS has apparently introduced. In 2011, already into the second decade of the twenty-first century, in the days of internet and cellphone banking, we now have to pay all tax amounts below P500 in cash. Did you read that? IN CASH.

This is simply silly. Speaking personally this has now become an enormous pain in the backside. Just last week one of our team went to pay two things to BURS: our monthly tax bill and also the 5% withholding tax on our office rent. The first was OK, we paid that by cheque. However my colleague was sent back by BURS who refused to accept our cheque for the 5%, around P300, and demanded cash instead.

Don’t they understand that this is yet another extra burden for businesses? Aren’t we supposed to be encouraging businesses to come to Botswana, invest money and employ and train us? Aren’t we supposed to make it easier for small companies to start up and make money? Aren’t we interested in making it easier for law-abiding businesses to operate?

Instead we seem to be adding to the bureaucracy and regulation, not cutting it back.

Of course I’m not opposed to some level of regulation and control. That’s the nature of the social contract between people and their elected government. They protect us from crime, disaster and invasion and in turn we pay our taxes and obey the speed limit. That’s liberal democracy. Liberal because all things are permitted until there’s a good reason to forbid them, democratic because we the people can influence what things are forbidden.

Two observations for you. First, can you identify the last time that two genuine liberal democracies went to war with each other? Answer: it’s never happened. In liberal democracies people are too busy making money to feed their children and improve their lives to go to war with people in another country doing the same thing. It’s not natural for such countries to go to war.

Second. It’s exactly 50 years since the Government of East Germany constructed a wall through the middle of Berlin with the specific intention of preventing East Germans going to West Germany and being exposed to dangerous things like liberalism, democracy and the right to do as they pleased. These were such ghastly things that the disturbed Marxists in charge were convinced that their people, their flock, their sheep-like people couldn’t be trusted with them. I have a slightly better view of humanity.

As I said, I’m not against a healthy dose of regulation, just to make sure that people obey the laws and play fairly. I’m also a big believer in taxes, so long as they’re fairly applied and don’t cripple the people who make the money to pay them. However, and it’s a big however, the level of regulation and taxation must be so high that it stifles the willingness of businesses to operate.

If this all goes wrong you know who suffers, don’t you? You and me, ordinary consumers who just want to buy things. BURS are running the risk of preventing us from doing exactly that.

This week’s stars

• A reader got in touch to celebrate Mr Phake at Jamal Trading Company in Gaborone, Ms Ntshweu, the Postmaster at Main Mall Post Office and Mr Vapi, the Postmaster at Broadhurst Post Office. She said she sought “assistance in their organizations and when I left I was the happiest customer … I had thought good customer service was no more especially in Gaborone but these three individuals have proven otherwise. Keep it up!”