06 Dec 2020

Vice President, Mr Slumber Tsogwane has reiterated the country’s commitment to transforming the economy despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Responding to the State-of-the- Nation Address on Thursday, the Vice President, also Member of Parliament for Boteti West, said the country had made a number of policy pronouncements that were part of the development roadmap seeking to propel Botswana to greater heights.

He said Botswana, like many  countries, had been adversely affected by the pandemic, thereby bringing attention to a  range of socio-economic challenges the country faced, such as high unemployment and poverty, among others.

The Vice President said COVID-19 called for a systematic and sustainable approach on how to bounce back on a recovery path towards a stable economy.

Mr Tsogwane pleaded with the public not to despair, noting that it was pleasing that government had designed a short-term COVID-19 economic relief package to support the economy and complement disease containment measures.

He said to undertake the interventions, government established the COVID-19 Pandemic  Relief  Fund, which  saw  the private sector and  civil  society companies  make  contributions to augment the government seed fund.

Mr Tsogwane applauded Parliament for adopting a motion requesting the extension of the declaration of State of Public Emergency under the provision of Section 17 of the constitution in the last Parliament sitting.

He said the State of Public Emergency allowed the country sufficient time to control and contain the pandemic as well as to mobilise resources to deal with the potential rising number of cases.

Mr Tsogwane said government had also developed an Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan   (ERTP) to support the restoration of economic activity and facilitate its growth.

He said the ERTP would complement the short-term economic relief package that was already being implemented to accelerate economic transformation.

Despite all the economic challenges, Mr Tsogwane said the country had embarked on a vision to transform from an upper middle-income country to a high-income country by 2036.

About low representation of women in political leadership, particularly at the National Assembly, Mr Tsogwane said the electoral system seemed to disadvantage women.

He thus challenged political parties to create women representation quota at party level.

Mr Tsogwane dismissed allegations by some opposition party legislators discrediting government’s commitment to early childhood education development.

He said government continued to expand the provision of Early Childhood Development in public schools to improve learners’ readiness for primary schooling and lifelong learning.

He said this was being done through collaborations with international organisations such as UNICEF to ensure that all children, regardless of gender, ethnicity, socio-economic background or circumstances realised their right to quality education.

Furthermore, the Vice President expressed optimism that Boteti Sub-council would be among the first to be upgraded to fully-fledged councils, fund permitting.

He also called for the construction of Rakops-Xere road, saying its connectivity would enable the inclusivity of Xere residents into the government’s development agenda.

Mr Tsogwane also pleaded with dikgosi to desist from active participation in politics, saying politicising Bogosi institution degraded its status. Ends