14 May 2020

The Vice President, Mr Slumber Tsogwane has pleaded with landlords to be patient with their tenants who are facing difficulties in paying their rentals due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Tsogwane said this when receiving donations at the Office of the President from various companies on May 14. The companies are Unitrans Botswana, which donated P20 000, Lobatse Senior Secondary Scool Class of 86 with P20 600, Telegu Association Botswana, which popped out P100 000, Total Filling Station with P115 000 worth of fuel, while The Voice Newspaper contributed advertising space worth P100 000.

Mr Tsogwane said government continued to appeal to other stakeholders to ease difficulties faced by Batswana during this difficult time. He appealed to the landlords not to evict tenants for failing to pay rentals, but instead exercise patience until the situation improves.

The Vice President also appealed to hotels to continue accommodating quarantined people, as the country was still fighting the pandemic.

He said the donations continued to ignite the spirit of giving, love, unity, and cooperation among Botswana.

“We will continue to cherish the good values that are enforced as we go through these difficult times, the values of love, giving, and more importantly of patriotism,” he said.

Mr Tsogwane also urged all beneficiaries to put the donations to good use.

For his part, Minister for Presidential Affairs, Governance and Public Administration, Mr Kabo Morwaeng said government was happy with the outpouring support.

He said Batswana were indebted to the local business community for their warm response, adding that the country was also privileged to be sharing bilateral relations with other nations whose citizens had extended a helping hand despite own challenges.

“To the people of the USA, represented by Ambassador Cloud, be assured that we cherish our relations. May our long and fruitful relations endure many more decades,” he said.

US Ambassador to Botswana, Craig Cloud said their P56 million donation to Botswana was part of his government’s contribution in assisting the country fight COVID-19.

He said America had spent decades working with Botswana in its laboratories and medical facilities in strengthening the community healthcare system.

Mr Cloud said they would work hard to ensure that COVID-19 did not spread in Botswana by providing 5 000 face shields and personal protective equipment. He said they would also train and deploy community health workers to track down cases of COVID-19 as early detection could stop the virus from spreading.

He said tracking cases and analysing data was critical to understanding the COVID 19 impact in the community, noting that their epidemiologist was going to help in analysing the data.

Mr Cloud said they would also assist Central Medical Store to make sure that Batswana access lifesaving drugs.

Meanwhile, Unitrans Botswana managing director, Mr Brian Swift said the pandemic had in a short time transformed many lives in different ways.

“Our freedoms in a free and democratic society have been drastically curtailed. And we continue to live in constant fear of the Coronavirus as well as the uncertainty about whether and when our normal way of life will ever return. A communal society has been forced to be individualistic and isolated,” he said.

Mr Swift said the economy had been dented and many people had lost jobs and businesses, adding that, ‘history of Botswana had taught us that we are a resilient nation. True to our faith we have always believed that.

He said as an essential service provider, Unitrans employees continued to bravely and selflessly cross borders to even some of the epicentres of the pandemic in the region in search of fuel for the country. Ends