10 Nov 2022

President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi will deliver the State-of-the-Nation-Address Monday at 2pm.

The President’s message, which will mark the start of the first meeting of the fourth session of the 12th Parliament, comes against the backdrop of a promising economic recovery up and a receding COVID-19 incidence

He is expected to give guidance on, or even announce a raft of economic activities that will further spur the economy on and generate employment.

He is also expected to update the nation on his social upliftment policies, agendas and other priority issues that he announced in his previous address. 

In his address last year the President dwelled much on the economy and employment theme with particular emphasis on agriculture, tourism, mining, the creative industry and sport.

These, he said at the time, would be facilitated through improvement of the ease of doing business, development of strategic infrastructure, Small and Medium Economic development, capacity building, research and development and attainment of a digital economy.

He is also expected to give an update of his Reset Agenda and how government is actualising the roadmap. 

In providing an overview of economic outlook and performance he most certainly will discuss government’s implementation of the Economic Recovery and Transformation Plan (ERTP). Government has achieved quite a number of the projects, and that in time and within budget, that the president set before it as part of ERTP and his priorities when he came into office in 2019.

This include mega projects such as the completion of the North-South Water carrier, completion of grade separated interchanges in Gaborone; Botswana’s hosting of the first ever Forbes30 Under 30 summit in Botswana, which government hoped would empower youth.

The President is also expected to give an update on corruption, and what successes the government has scored so far.

An issue close to his heart is that of digitalisation and digitisation of government services through the fourth Industrial Revolution (4iR). Thus, the President is expected to give an update on progress of the accelerated digital transformation strategy, SmartBots, whereby government hopes to increase tempo and appetite for digitalisation and bridge the digital divide through leveraging 4IR.

Employment creation remains a priority for the government and the President is expected to give an update of the present status as well as government’s plans for the future.

The President has on numerous occasions talked about efforts to build a knowledge-based economy, which requires significant investment in strategic infrastructure. 

The connect-a-school initiative, a high-speed internet connection and the issuance of gadgets to students form part of those investments.

With regard to agriculture, the President Masisi is expected to update the nation on how the performance of the horticultural sub-sector following import restrictions.

With the government working hard to position Lobu and Impala farms as world-class farms, it can be expected that the president will talk about government’s efforts to facilitate improvement of small stock with a view to making agriculture one of the leading engines of economic growth and what fruit such efforts are bearing.

Government has also launched the refurbished Ipelegeng Skills Development Component programme (ISDC). The objective of the new look programme is to develop and implement the skills development component for Ipelegeng beneficiaries on construction projects and to equip them with occupational, entrepreneurship and life skills.

In an interview, local economist Mr Louis Sibanda said President Masisi had made some notable achievements, whose further benefit to the economy, and how they would improve the ease of doing business, and life in general the President needed to elucidate.

He said projects such as the SmartBots initiative were a great platform for innovations and had a positive impact on new value chain components such as content development. 

These, said Sibanda, offered a great opportunity for software developers.

Mr Sibanda said he expected President Masisi to explain mechanisms to address inflation. 

He said following a high-level retreat by government executive staff, President Masisi made an admission of poor implementation of projects therefore, he expected him to put together a strategy to address such. 

He also hoped the President Masisi would over-emphasise his Reset agenda.

Mr Sibanda however, said a worrying factor was the quality of infrastructure development. He said this against the backdrop of the collapse part of the multimillion Pula Boatle bridge. 

Thus, he said, there was need to assure the nation of the quality of other planned infrastructural developments.

Botswana Federation of Trade Unions (BFTU) secretary-general Mr Thusang Butale said it was important for President Masisi to anchor his address on job creation and spell out the achievements realised so far.

He said while it was evident that some targets of employment creation were not reached, it was time government said how it was going to ensure that happened.

He said government should also look into the Decent Work Country programme and the national employment policy.

He was hopeful that President Masisi would update the nation on the status of the labour law review process. 

Mr Butale said issues of national security were worth being included in the address owing to a recent spike in violent crimes. He said crime had a negative impact on the nation’s productivity levels.

Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Business at the University of Botswana Mr Thuso Mphela said the critical thing was an announcement on recovery post-COVID-19 pandemic.

He said top of the agenda for President Masisi’s address should be employment creation and food security among others.

Mr Mphela said there was a disturbing trend of energy crisis in the region which was threatening the economic recovery process post-COVID-19. He said little had been done on investment in the energy sector.

He hoped that the address would inspire confidence and despite all the challenges urged the nation to walk together.

While it has not been an easy road in the past two years due to the economic difficulties exacerbated by the pandemic, his wish was for the address to spell out solutions on how the nation would want to move forward.

He said it was also important to reinstate some aspects of Botswana values such as boipelego. Leadership, he said, should be bold in instilling confidence.

An Ipelegeng worker in the Ramotswa South Village Development Committee Ms Mosetsanagape Mokote said she hoped President Masisi would pay closer attention to the newly refurbished Ipelegeng programme.

She decried the working conditions of the recent programme including general working conditions and welfare. 

The new programme, she said, should be expedited as it had the potential to create employment for young people. Ends