26 Oct 2017

Late Presidents Sir Seretse Khama and Sir Ketumile Masire have been hailed for upholding human security by laying the foundation for sustainable development and ensuring that citizens benefit from mineral resources equitably.

This was said by University of Johannesburg Law Professor, Letlhokwa Mpedi during the International Social Work Conference on Human Security and Sustainable Development at the University of Botswana on October 25.

Professor Mpedi noted that the aforementioned leaders were able to effectively lead the nation during the post-colonial era and ensured human security, which was key to human dignity, was paramount.

The Law professor noted that gaining independence back then for most African states meant gaining citizenship and handling state affairs, which the former Botswana presidents successfully tackled compared to others in the region.

“With respect to upholding human security, social citizenship and social protection, the country that I remember is Botswana. Botswana did not deviate from a nationalist approach since its independence,” he stated.

He cited leaders of other African countries who he said had ‘deviated’ from the nationalist discourse along the way, whom he said started well, but later on caused a decline of human security in their countries, which he said led to poor economic performance.

These, he said, in turn led to human indignity. “Human dignity comes with certain conditions such as access to health care, access to free education, access to social safety nets and many other civil liberties,” he said.

For this reason, he said there was need for African leaders to refocus and retrace steps to the late 1970s, when the continent was blooming in human security.

Moreover, Professor Mpedi reiterated that most African countries have shown tremendous economic progress as reflected in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth.

However, he said the increase in GDP should correlate with the improvement in the lives of the people at grass root level.

He said civilians should enjoy basic human rights such as Social and Cultural Rights, Civil Rights, Economic Rights and Political Rights, which are interlinked ‘which is not the case in most countries’.

He noted that politicians should lead their countries to improve livelihoods, but instead they have a tendency of exploiting the poor to get their votes during elections time, but do little or nothing to improve their livelihoods.

Thus, he said, there was need to find systematic ways of including the poor in policy development and design.

For his part, University of Cape Town Department of Social Development, Professor Ndangwa Noyoo said Africa was endowed with mineral resources necessary to liberate the masses from the chains of poverty if distributed evenly.

He said corruption and social injustices were the main stumbling blocks to economic emancipation of the continent.

He concurred with Professor Mpedi that most African leaders violated human rights and civil liberties of their people, thus social citizenship was trampled upon.

“Due to corruption certain people are not accessing social justice.

A handful of elites are enjoying the fruits of the liberation struggles by our former leaders while the masses continue to suffer,” he stated.

He said there was need to liberate the young people from poverty.

“We have young people flying to Europe under the illusion that they will get better life, but they are dying, they fall victims to human trafficking,” he said.

To curb this development, Professor Noyoo said the time had come for African leaders to take a nationalist discourse as their core responsibility, find fitting solutions to challenges in the region and forge the continent forward.

The conference would run from October 25 to 27 and it has a number of local and international speakers lined up.

The event was organised by University of Botswana Faculty of Social Sciences to seek solutions to problems that inhibit human development.

The scholars shall attempt to address challenges of development such as social protection, human trafficking, political security, educational security, health, and poverty. ENDS