24 Feb 2019

Minister of Finance and Economic Development Mr Kenneth Matambo says Botswana has a responsible government that will not make promises that are neither practicable nor sustainable.

Responding to the debate on the budget proposals for the next financial year on February 21  Minister Matambo dismissed some of the strategies for economic growth and development that were put forward by the opposition as not only being unrealistic, but also having possible negative implications for the economy.

He said the use of medicinal marijuana and industrial hemp to create jobs as advocated for by the opposition was not a well-thought out idea that could address the job creation dilemma.

He said Leader of Opposition Advocate Duma Boko in his response to the budget speech, had not stated who exactly would employ the 100 000 people that he said once in power the Umbrella for Democratic Change would create jobs for through the growing of medicinal marijuana and industrial hemp.

Further, he said Adv. Boko did not say if there was a market for the marijuana and hemp.

Regarding a living wage of P3 000, Mr Matambo said the amount was not sustainable and could have serious implications such as collapse of companies, something that he said would further compound the problem of unemployment that the country was currently grappling with.

As for the proposal of an old age pension allowance of P1 500, the minister said the argument advanced by the opposition had some merit, but that while government was amenable to move towards that, it would take a while for the pension allowance to reach such an amount.

On calls for the abolition of the A grade within the salary structure of the public service, he said the problem was not the scale itself, but rather the amount of pay attached to it.

He noted that the salary grade was one of those that would, for the first time in many years, enjoy a 10 per cent increment.

This, he said was evidence that government was indeed moving towards addressing the concern about the lower salary grades.

Mr Matambo agreed with the proposal that there was need to make a special dispensation for infrastructure upkeep for the two cities of Gaborone and Francistown.

He said there was no doubt that the state of infrastructure in the two cities was embarrassing.

The minister however dismissed as untrue the contention that there were no allocations for maintenance of infrastructure, saying the funds for such were provided for in the budget speech.

He said it was also not true that the budget speech was focused just on economic growth to the exclusion of economic development.

He said to government both economic growth and economic development were both important and that neither of them was being neglected.

The minister’s response marked a conclusion of the debate on the budget proposals. ENDS