21 Nov 2022

Botswana is a nation at a political and economic crossroads and needs to make the right choices in order to build a bright future, and avoid pitfalls that could stagnate the nation, Member of Parliament for Maun West, Mr Dumelang Saleshando has said.

Responding to the State of the Nation Address recently, Mr Saleshando said the country needed to be courageous to ensure that democracy was entrenched and the economy was broadened to empower ordinary people.

One of the first steps towards this, he said, should be generation of human and political rights such as equality before the law, the right to vote and freedom of speech, which should be accompanied by second-generation rights being economic and cultural.

These include the right to work, quality education, quality healthcare, housing and the right to social welfare, Mr Saleshando said.

He said if enshrined in the Constitution, these would usher in a new Botswana and bring forth human dignity, and usher in a path towards sustainable development.

He said the country’s economic structure was exporting jobs by mining raw materials that eventually generate industrial jobs in more developed states.

“By entrenching economic and cultural rights into the Constitution, government will be enjoined to utilise the country’s raw materials for industrialisation purposes such as various industrial use of coal, and develop alternative sources of power such as solar energy manufacturing,” he said.

He said the Ngamiland area was ‘the paradox of plenty,’ as it was well endowed with flora and fauna, but had its wealth exported offshore since the companies that benefitted were from elsewhere or run by expatriates.

He said the new Botswana should be able to usher in tourists not only in Ngamiland, but the mining areas of Orapa, Jwaneng and across the country.

He added that the quality of education was important as it would lay the foundation for the prospects of succeeding in life and being competitive in the global job market.

He thanked government for finally acceding to what he said were long-held opposition requests for mother tongue education and government-run pre-primary education.

However, he said the current government preschool programme was not sufficient as the nursery schools had not been rolled out to be accessed by every child countrywide.

Mr Saleshando called for a revamped public health sector that would ensure affordable quality healthcare for all.

Furthermore, he said United Nations Development Programme reports indicate that the quality of life in Botswana was not improving, while the gap between the rich and poor was increasing, thus the poor should be cushioned from such a situation.

“As such we should maintain Value-Added Tax (VAT) at 12 per cent and not return it to 14 per cent, and add subsidies to basic necessities such as electricity and water, by making them VAT exempt,” said Mr Saleshando. ENDS