29 Jun 2021

At the dawn of independence in 1966, Botswana’s founding father, Sir Seretse Khama and other frontline state leaders (so called because they faced aggression from apartheid South Africa, whose ‘terrorists’ they harboured) set as their goals, policies that anchored regional macroeconomic stability and encouraged economic independence.

Being leaders of newly independent countries where poverty was the order of the day, Sir Seretse Khama and his regional counterparts had the mammoth task of coordinating not only national, but also regional economic development.

To a bystander, the goal was but a pipe dream, too elusive to grasp, as creating a viable economy in post colonial Africa meant having to start from scratch, with little to no aid from colonial masters.

Hence, there was a widely held belief that attaining economic independence would be much harder than gaining political independence. In some areas, drought destroyed agricultural production, leading to famine, while elsewhere war brought economic activity to a halt.

In an effort to forge closer economic ties and take their citizens out of poverty, Southern Africa heads of states gathered in Arusha, Tanzania in July 1979, in a conference whose main aim was to find ways of reducing dependency on apartheid South Africa.

The Arusha conference, which was chaired by Sir Seretse Khama, called for, among others coordinated regional economic development. This was in tandem with Sir Seretse Khama’s commitment to regional economic independence especially from South Africa. in fact, the idea of a regional block to coordinate development was mooted then.

“We seek to overcome the fragmentation of our economies by coordinating our national development efforts to strengthen them.  

The basis of our cooperation, built on concrete projects and specific programmes, rather than on grandiose schemes and massive bureaucratic institutions, must be the assured mutual advantage of all participating states,” said Sir Seretse Khama said in his address at the launch of the Southern African Development Coordinating Conference (SADCC) on April 01 1980, in Lusaka, Zambia.

SADC has since been enhanced to become Southern African Development Community (SADC)

To map Botswana’s path to economic independence, Sir Seretse Khama assembled an economic think tank made up of Sir Ketumile Masire, Dr Festus Mogae and Mr Martin Marriot.

In an interview with BOPA on Monday, Dr Mogae described Sir Seretse Khama as a true statesman, who had the interest of Batswana and the southern African region at heart.

Having joined the then administration as a planning officer in 1968, Dr Mogae has has only praise for Sir Seretse Khama’s foresight which ensured a solid foundation for regional peace, stability and economic growth.

“Seretse was instrumental in creating investor-friendly policies to encourage outside investments in Botswana’s diamond mines and tourist industry. Given the success of this plan, the overall poverty level reduced and inflation was contained,” he said.

Under sir Seretse’s leadership Botswana was able to avoid the “resource curse” that plagued many natural resource-rich African countries as the country used its newly discovered diamonds for development, setting the example for other African countries.

It was Sir Seretse Khama’s open mind and consultative leadership principles that helped Botswana to achieve political stability and implement sustainable macroeconomic mechanisms, he said.

Sir Seretse Khama was also a smart negotiator, he says. It was through his negotiations skills that he successfully negotiated the increase of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland’s profit share in the Southern Africa Customs Union from one to 14 percent.

As the nation readies to celebrate the country’s founding father’s centenary, his objective of creating African economic synergies, lives on through the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), which reaffirms regional economic integration.

The advent of (AfCFTA), which creates a single continental market for goods and services in Africa, is set to boost Botswana’s economic growth and falls within Sir Seretse Khama’s ‘intra SADCC economic link’ ideology. Ends