20 Feb 2023

Member of Parliament for Lobatse, Dr Thapelo Matsheka says the 2023-2025 Transitional Development Plan (TNDP) should assume a more national posture in determining national priorities and iconic infrastructure. Debating the 2023/2024 budget proposals recently, Dr Matsheka said it was importance for the transitional development plan to shift focus and be above the National Development Plan and seek its own special funding to consolidate gaps identified on account of shocks created by COVID-19 and its impact of the economy. 

He added that the transitional plan should also strive to attain its intended purpose within the two years stipulated. “It is important to highlight that TNDP is a provisional plan that should be prominently different from any extension of the NDP 11. Documents on the NDP 11 mid-term review, Economic Recovery Transition Plan as well as the Reset Agenda are all critical to separate specific issues to address the two-year transition period,” Dr Matsheka said. 

He added that the transitional plan should have extracted specific objective from such documents to be incorporated towards its smooth implementation. 

The Lobatse MP also argued that the transitional plan should focus on specific key areas over the short period of transition to avoid being a ‘business as usual document’. Dr Matsheka was of the view that the country did not achieve intended targets in the Vision 2016 and might also not attain the Vision 2036. 

“The TNDP should lay a solid foundation in the transformation towards the realisation of the Vision 2036 pillars,” he said. Acquainted with the implementation of the TNDP to align the election cycles to planning periods, Dr Matsheka argued that political business cycles were not good for private sector investment business planning. 

“The public private partnerships that government is striving to foster cannot be done in an environment dominated by political uncertainty owing to business cycles,” he said. He opined that the private sector investment and retention policies were much dependent of a high level of political certainty as change of government could be a concern to the private sector and could impact investor confidence. He warned government against producing policy contradictions that could negatively affect economic growth, particularly the import ban. 

“How do we expect certain countries to receive our exports while we have restricted their imports to our markets? How do we expect local producers to benefit from the forthcoming African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) if government has policies that restrict importation of certain goods and services?” he quizzed. 

He said import ban could be bad for an open economy that Botswana had adopted. Contributing to the debate, Sefhare/Ramokgonami MP, Dr Kesitegile Gobotswang decried lack of transparency on the government and DeBeers mining contract. 

He also expressed disappointment on the prolonged negotiations between Botswana and De Beers. For his part, Ramotswa MP, Mr Lefoko Moagi said he was happy that the country’s economy was on a recovery path following the COVID-19 pandemic. With the country on a digitisation drive, Mr Moagi urged government to also digitise its revenue and tax collection systems in order to close any leaks on revenue collection streams. 

Mochudi East legislator, Mr Mabuse Pule commended government for coming up with a budget proposal that had the interests of Batswana at heart, particularly the proposed infrastructure development. 

He also commended government for including the Modipane-Mabalane road which, he said would easily link his constituency and decongest traffic on major roads. ends