Elections are upon us, vote wisely

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. 

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, 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 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. 

Grahame McLeod