06 Feb 2020

 Leader of Opposition, Mr Dumelang Saleshando, has called on government to set employment targets.

Responding to the 2020 Budget Speech on February 5, Mr Saleshando said setting targets was an international best practice.

Botswana’s economy could not be high income whilst still having a high number of unemployed people.

He said government did not have plans to improve the economy, adding that mineral resources could no longer significantly add to Gross Domestic Income.

Mr Saleshando, also Maun West legislator, indicated that the country’s development budget had dropped from 27 per cent in 2018/2019 to 17 per cent in 2018/2019.

He said it was, therefore, not necessary to invest more on air assets, but rather on health, education, infrastructure and employment creation.

Infrastructure, he said, was in a poor condition, citing Maun as an example.

He said for a tourism capital, government should invest more on development of good infrastructure.

In addition, he said, government should promptly address issues of education, noting that the state of education in Botswana had collapsed hence the need for the national budget to address it.

He also emphasised that Botswana could not have a knowledge-based economy with poor status of education.

On parastatals, MP Saleshando noted that some of them were underperforming as a result of inexperienced and incompetent board members and management, hence failure to make profits.

As a way forward, the Maun West legislator said government should invest more on improving education by reconstructing and renovating schools, providing proper conditions for learning as well as proper accommodation for teachers.

He said schools were congested and not providing a proper learning environment.

He also indicated that the industrialisation of hemp had the ability to create more jobs, which would eventually generate high income economy.

He noted that the hemp industry had capacity to produce paper, clothing, livestock feeds and many others.

MP Saleshando also said the country’s reserves should be used to develop the country to enable economic growth.

He said the more than P50 billion in reserve banks were benefitting foreign countries, hence the need to use it to benefit Batswana. ENDS