16 May 2021

The Vice President, Mr Slumber Tsogwane, says government’s commitment towards achieving an economic transformation remains President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi’s vision.

Mr Tsogwane said this on Friday during village leadership meetings in Moremaoto and Khumaga.

He indicated that the vision to transform Botswana to a high income status and the achievement of prosperity for all, as outlined in the National Vision 2036, remained government’s priority.

 He said if that could be achieved, unemployment would be reduced.

He indicated that some people were against tax increment unaware that it allowed government to offer some of the services free of charge.

Challenges presented by COVID-19, he said, had proved that agriculture had potential to sustain the economy if practiced on a larger scale.

The Vice President, also Boteti West MP, stated that government made plans to implement some of the economic transformation projects from 2019 to 2024 unaware that there might be COVID-19 outbreak.

The recent budget session came at the most difficult time and might be constrained due to COVID-19 since some of the projects would have to be deferred to cover COVID-19 budget, he said.

“As government, we are not in any way using that as a defence mechanism,” he said, adding that it was crucial for the public to acknowledge that the economic situation had changed drastically.

The COVID-19 pandemic, he said, had affected the world at large and its effects were being felt.

Mr Tsogwane said the aim was to fight the effects of COVID-19 to pave way for economic recovery.

He implored Batswana to take the COVID-19 vaccination and protect their lives and that of their children. 

He also encouraged people to take vaccine according to their age group.

Mr Tsogwane stated that the aim was that by December 2021, all those above 18 years should have been vaccinated.

Government, he said, was not using one type of vaccine so as to establish the efficacy of vaccines used.

He noted that all vaccines had side effects, but could not pose risk to people’s lives. 

Mr Tsogwane said it had also been established that teachers fell among the high risk groups and would also be prioritised in the next vaccination.

Mr Tsogwane further encouraged Batswana to inform themselves on COVID-19 information shared by President Masisi, expressing concern that there was a lot of misleading information on social media platforms.

Mr Tsogwane said people should seek factual information from reliable sources and government offices, stating that COVID-19 information was shared on radios, television and Dailynews paper by President Masisi and COVID-19 task force team. ends