31 Aug 2020

The private sector has a culture of efficient business practice and is better placed to handle some state owned enterprises should they be privatised, Assistant Minister of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Mr Buti Billy has said.

Contributing to the economy and employment sector debate on the National Development Plan 11 (NDP 11) Mid-Term Review, Mr Billy said the country should pursue privatisation in order to boost the effectiveness of some parastatals.

While noting that the political opposition often raised the concern that privatisation could lead to jobs losses, Mr Billy said the policy would benefit the country through better financial outcomes, allowing the state to focus on the provision of developmental projects and social services.

Mr Billy noted that the COVID-19 pandemic had an adverse effect on some private businesses and called for the state to issue stimulus support to companies, suggesting that tax breaks be offered to companies that engage in manufacturing as well as those that employ a sizable number of youth.

Such tax relief could also be extended to businesses in the alcohol industry that had been hard hit by the temporary ban on the sale of alcohol beverages, Mr Billy suggested, adding that the relief could be extended over a financial year or two.

Mr Billy further called for citizen economic empowerment in the construction industry, stating that foreign companies often repatriate their profits, while local companies would invest their earnings domestically.

With the education sector moving towards imparting various skills through multiple pathways outcomes based education, and Francistown being proposed as a mining hub through the Special Economic Zones Authority (SEZA), Mr Billy called for subjects related to mining to be taught at Francistown Secondary School and Mater Spei College. Mr Billy decried the lack of sufficient staff housing for teachers in the Francistown area and called on the government to purchase existing underutilised property in neighbourhoods such as Gerald Estates to augment teachers’ accommodation.

Adding his contribution, Molepolole North MP, Mr Oabile Ragoeng buttressed the argument that some state owned enterprises were not profitable, citing the funds that the government continuously invested in parastatals such as the National Development Bank (NDB).

Mr Ragoeng said that an entity such as the NDB that had existed for decades while often lending funds to customers at market rate should have become a self-sustaining commercial entity that independently raises its own capital without seeking bailouts from the state.

He further said he was pleased that the recently adopted Mid-Term Review incorporated positive elements such as improving the ease of doing business, infrastructure development as well as the pursuing of information communication technology (ICT).

Mr Ragoeng said that the recently reviewed Citizen Entrepreneurial Development Agency (CEDA) guidelines would improve the opportunity of Batswana being involved in business, stating that no country could develop its people while neglecting small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs).

Lamenting the lack of a coherent maintenance plan at public schools, Mr Ragoeng said government had done well to construct schools countrywide, but they had been poorly maintained.

Mr Ragoeng also said that a promise had long been made for Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) houses to be constructed in Molepolole, but the scarcity of utilities such as water was used as an excuse to abandon such projects.

Insisting that such houses could be constructed and the utilities availed later, Mr Ragoeng called on government to push for the construction of the BHC houses in Molepolole to address the shortage of accommodation there, adding that many civil servants in the area commute from Gaborone. BOPA