Botswana’s elections are just a few weeks away, and on the TV and at election rallies,
Batswana will be listening to what their parliamentary and council candidates have to say.
First and foremost, Batswana need to analyse what they hear. Is what they hear true, half
true, exaggerated, or merely fabricated and a lie? And people should do this, even for the
political party that they have already decided to vote for. Just because you may be a
supporter of one party does not mean that they will always speak the truth! In the days of
COVID-19, some scientists predicted that the pandemic would decimate Africa. However,
the opposite was true – many advanced countries in the West actually experienced higher
death rates from COVID than many African countries, including Botswana.
Also, voters should be aware of what the government should do and can’t do, and what
other stakeholders should be doing to improve the lives of Batswana. And they should also
read the party manifestos which inform voters about the policies that they will implement
to improve the lives of Batswana should they be elected into power.
In a strong democracy, opposition parties play a pivotal role in ensuring good governance
from the ruling party. And rightly so! However, this has to be done in a responsible and
meaningful way. Opposition parties have the right and responsibility to criticise government
without fear of intimidation.
However, Opposition leaders are experts in character assassination and rallies may
become little more than mudslinging events designed to damage the reputation of their
political opponents. Although this may be seen as welcome free entertainment by a party’s
supporters, it does not put food on the table for the electorate. And some of our leaders
excel in destructive criticism – only criticising government for this and that… However, what
voters really want to hear is what each party would do to address the problems facing
Botswana. For example, a party may criticise government in not doing enough to reduce
unemployment, especially amongst the youth. But we don’t have to be a politician to know
that! However, a mature and caring politician will have done his homework beforehand and
so can tell voters what measures they would implement to reduce unemployment if elected
into power. Now, that is constructive criticism – identifying a problem and coming up with
ways to mitigate it.
At present, the race for the White House in the USA is hotting up. Here the two
contenders – Kamal Harris and Donald Trump, are running neck and neck in opinion polls –
the race is too close to call; the final outcome is unclear. However, many US political analysts have repeatedly said that the party that is most effective in proposing measures to help resolve the day-to-day problems which Americans face will win in November. Now, if a
party here does not do so, then it cannot complain if it does not seize state power this
month.
Opposition parties here love to play the blame game by blaming government for all the
problems that Botswana is now experiencing; this they believe is a way to buy votes.
Although government may be partly to blame, we cannot place all the blame on the ruling
party. The Opposition, for example, tell us that the education and health sectors have
collapsed. But this is an exaggeration! It’s true that government has not fully equipped our
schools to create an environment that is conducive to teaching and learning – shortage of
desks, textbooks and reprographics and pupils sharing chairs seem to be the norm in many
schools.
However, are we still teaching pupils under the trees and are pupils writing on slates?
And what about our literacy rate which is expressed as the percentage of people who can
read and write? For example, the literacy rate for youths (15-24 years of age) here is 97.7
percent, the seventh highest in Africa. And government is not the only stakeholder;
teachers, headteachers, parents and pupils also must play their part to improve our
education system.
During the pandemic, opposition blamed government for not obtaining vaccines in good
time. However, the reality was rather different! Many Western countries were hoarding the
vaccines and so refused to make them available for developing countries such as Botswana.
Opposition also blames government of the present high cost of living. But this problem is
not unique to Botswana; something that the Opposition does not want the electorate to
know about. It’s a problem that occurs across the globe, even in well governed wealthy
Western nations. The bottom line is that these high prices are a direct result of the ongoing
war between Russia and Ukraine. Sanctions imposed by the West reduced Russia’s oil
exports, and hence the supply of oil to non-oil producing nations such as Botswana. It’s a
question of supply and demand – if the demand for oil exceeds the supply, then this will
result in higher oil prices worldwide. And our government can do nothing to reduce these
prices – they are beyond our control. And high oil prices do not only affect the price that we
pay at the pumps. It will also affect almost everything that we buy since most of the goods
that we see in our stores are transported by road.
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Next gender-based violence (GBV). This, together with rape and defilement, are serious
problems in Botswana. In fact, we now have earnt the unenviable reputation of having the
highest rape rate in the world. To help curb these problems, government has built shelters
which provide refuge for those who have been abused. And they have also increased the
penalties for rape. Such measures are steps in the right direction. However, to solve such
problems, we have to first identify the root causes. They originate in society and so it is up
to society to address them. And it all begins with the family – the pillar of any nation.
However, the quality of family life here is poor. Fathers who are usually absent spend their
time in bars and then return home to beat their partners and kids. Even though Batswana
consider themselves as being a peaceful people, every week we read in our newspapers
about Batswana killing their partners, kids, drink buddies… Now most kids emulate their
parents’ behaviour, and so, it is not surprising that they may also indulge in anti-social
behaviour. The reality is that the buck stops at parents; they are responsible for raising
children who will grow up to be responsible and law-abiding citizens.
Next unemployment. This has been rising over the last few years and now stands at an
alarming 27 percent. However, government alone should not be relied on to provide all the
jobs here. When Botswana gained its independence in 1966, the government employed
large numbers of people to establish new ministries and provide much needed
infrastructure such as schools, clinics, hospitals, roads… However, it is now up to the private
sector to provide most of those badly needed jobs. In fact, the most successful economies in
the world have been driven by the private sector.
In recent years, international organisations, such as the International Monetary Fund,
have repeatedly said that the Botswana’s government’s wage bill is too high and
unsustainable. It’s now time for the private sector to take the baton! And whether they like
it or not, Batswana now must start up their own businesses and, for this reason,
government has recently set up the Ministry of Entrepreneurship to assist new businesses.
Government has also over time introduced Batswana to programmes, such as Chema
Chema, Temo Letlotlo, and institutions like LEA and CEDA which can provide guidance and
finance for such new entrepreneurs.
Now it’s up to Batswana to take advantage of such schemes. But despite all this
assistance that is available, local businesses often fail within a few years of being set up. The
opposition will, of course, point to weaknesses in such government initiatives. For example,
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they claim that the agriculture sector is in a poor state and has not benefitted by ‘poorly
planned’ government programmes like ALDEP. But farmers must also play their part in
growing the sector. In some of these programmes, farmers would plough their land and be
paid for it by government. But many farmers then never planted those fields; so many
farmers clearly abused government assistance. So, who is to blame here? And there is the
president’s backyard gardening initiative. The aim of this initiative was to encourage
Batswana to grow vegetables and so increase food security, incomes and employment. But
these days many of these backyard projects have failed and all that we see today under the
shade netting is weeds. Who is to blame here?
I was once employed for several years as a lecturer at Tonota College of Education.
Whilst there, I taught courses in crop production and crop science to prepare our students
to teach agriculture in our junior secondary schools. But many of the students had a
negative attitude to practical work in the garden. But agriculture is a practical hands-on
business! Therefore, it’s not surprising that many young people these days want office jobs
as white collar workers; work, like farming, that involves getting hands dirty is so often
despised.
Some years ago, some young people in Gaborone were interviewed by a reporter for the
BBC programme Business Africa. They were all asked the question: What can be done to
provide jobs here in Botswana? And almost all of them sang the UDC song: Government
must give us jobs! They were simply expecting government to rain down jobs from heaven!
However, one young man said that it was wrong to simply sit back and wait for government
to hand out jobs on a silver plate! Instead, he has set up his own business in Old Naledi – a
small café selling local foods. He says that it is doing well and he has since been able to
employ some locals to assist him. Such people show initiative and provide jobs; we need
more of them!
The Opposition also claims that our graduates may not have the skills needed by the
labour market. That might be true and so government should ensure that courses followed
by our students in schools and tertiary institutions should be revised to produce students
with those skills. Opposition claims that government is not doing enough to attract foreign
investment to the country. Although such investment might provide crucial jobs, many
foreign companies are actually reluctant to invest here since the market for their goods is
too small – only 2.4 million people, and yet this country’s larger neighbour boasts a
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population of 60 million thus ensuring a much larger market. Plus, the problem of low
productivity here!
Finally, infrastructure. For our economy to grow and provide much needed employment,
world class infrastructure is essential. Opposition leaders have criticised government in
providing inadequate supplies of potable water in Botswana. However, in recent years
government have implemented many water projects such as the construction of the
pipeline from Mmamashia wellfield, a second North South Water Carrier pipeline, water
projects supplying water to Lobatse and surrounding villages, and supplying water to
villages in the Tutume area, water treatment works… Although the Morupule power station
was commissioned over ten years ago, it is still not fully operational and this state of affairs
has also been blamed on government. However, much of the blame must also be blamed on
the Chinese company that built it. And we know about the defunct Palapye Glass Works.