17 Jul 2018

The President of the opposition Alliance for Progressive Mr Ndaba Gaolathe has urged members of his party to come up with ideas that will positively transform the lives of Batswana. Speaking during the party’s Policy Conference held in Mochudi during the President’s holidays, Mr Gaolathe said Batswana were looking for a party to offer an alternative to the ruling party.

He said the current administration has backtracked by 10 years, correcting the errors committed by the previous leadership and therefore it has 20 years to play catch up. He said Batswana were yearning for a life of prosperity and therefore needed men and women of integrity who have the love for their people. Mr Gaolathe said people should be appointed into leadership positions on merit not based on friendship or political affiliation.

He said Batswana need a country that enhances and develops skills for youths to enable them to undertake innovative projects. “The current education system needs to be transformed and we also need to build a labour force that builds things,” he said.

He further said there was need to build a generation that was confident in what they do.  Talking about economic transformation, he said Singapore had managed to build a robust economy but does not have minerals or tourism attraction facilities such as Botswana.

“We have the diamonds, uranium, the delta, the culture but we are not the best in terms of prosperity of our people,” he said.

He said they need to modernise the economy, restructure it so that the country moves towards transformation.

The AP president called on  members to organise themselves into a formidable generation that would change the country.

Mr Gaolathe said the Executive has become so powerful such that other two arms of government were not visible hence the need for transformation.

Further, he said local government should be empowered through decentralisation such that service delivery is not done by the Executive.

He said the government was a key player in the economy, with expenditure standing at about 40 per cent of GDP.  This, he said meant that the amount of money spent on tenders and procurement was an important lever of the economy.

“If we were visionary we will use this to create multinationals who can subsequently play roles internationally,” he said.

Furthermore, he said it was time that the government looked for another strategic partner other than De Beers and empower Batswana to also own and operate mines.

Mr Gaolathe also called for the enhancement of indigenous knowledge to develop local products. AP Secretary General Mr Phenyo Butale said this was not a National Conference but one where party members have been engaged to develop the party policy, hence only few representatives were invited. The policy is expected to prepare the one-year old party for the 2019 general elections. ENDS