08 Dec 2022

Challenges facing Botswana are increasingly becoming complex and threatening to reverse gains and immense successes enjoyed over the years.

This was revealed by Gaborone Central MP, Mr Tumisang Healy said this during the ongoing debates in Parliament on the draft second Transitional National Development Plan (TNDP) April 2023- March 2025.

Mr Healy said some of the well-known challenges was that the economy was still reliant on diamond exports and the public sector which exposed it to external shocks.

He said inequality in Botswana remained the highest in the world and there were disturbing levels of unemployment, especially among the productive age group.

Mr Healy cited poor implementation of policies and projects as one of the challenges and noted that time was now for robust economic and institutional reforms as golden opportunities had been missed in the past.

“I am a firm proponent of citizen economic empowerment because I am fully aware of the stiff barriers to entry they face. We come from a generation that was not commercially oriented. It is only now that we are intentional about entrepreneurship and creating opportunities for our people,” he said.

He said he was worried that all the initiatives hardly benefitted the targeted population but rather accrued to those already at the top food chain that is, those with resources to quickly take advantage of new initiatives.

The Gaborone Central MP said government had glossed over having low debt levels and watched with satisfaction as foreign reserves increased.

He said it was one area where government missed an opportunity of using proper capital management frameworks.

“We could have borrowed more in the years when we still had strong revenues and used the funds for productive investments. But it is only now we are looking at borrowing at a time our fiscus is compromised,” he said.

Mr Healy said the economic base was very narrow as government was the only biggest employer and effectively the main anchor of the economy. He said this put government in a tight corner of implementing some of the reforms long called for such as restructuring the public service.

He said the lucrative sector of the economy was not in the hands of Batswana as government lost revenue year in and out which was repatriated outside the country, money which could have been reinvested in the country to create jobs.

“Another issue we must look at and act on is government tenders. It partly explains why we have failed to harness entrepreneurship, instead, we are bedevilled by tenderpreneurship. There is nothing in doing business with government but it should be beneficial to both sides,” he added.

Mr Healy said there were a number of things that government could do to improve the economy so as to create jobs, bring down inequality and improve implementation and efficiency.

He called for high taxes for high-income earners as well as property taxes for the number of properties a person held.

He said diversifying the economy was not completely reinventing the wheel but spoke more of how to leverage existing resources to create more opportunities.

Mr Healy suggested that among the institutional reforms needed was the absolute independence of Parliament. He urged legislators to put hands together for a common goal which was the welfare of the people. ENDs