29 Oct 2025

It would be in the best interest of the international community if Botswana, Africa’s oldest continuous multi-party democracy, was to consistently maintain her good governance and tranquillity, and reach greater economic stability.

These were the sentiments expressed by the Minister of State in the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, Ms Serap Guler during a courtesy call on Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse on Tuesday at Parliament in Gaborone.

Ms Guler said the instability that has led to terrorism building in other places proves the importance of countries such as Botswana remaining stable.

She said Botswana has been an example of stable democracy but this should not be taken for granted; rather it was essential for development partners such as Germany to assist Botswana to nurture its democracy in order to ensure conditions that foment instability elsewhere do not develop.

“Botswana’s democracy and stability are important for the region and the world, we must see it as a security issue, not just about socio-economic stability, because we have seen what happened in places such as Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). We must work together to ensure Botswana maintains her democratic and economic stability,” Ms Guler said.

She added that Botswana was a nation that shared values with Germany, particularly good governance, democracy and human rights and she thus underscored the importance of the two states collaborating more closely on areas of mutual interest.

For his part, Mr Keorapetse admitted that while Botswana has made significant gains since independence in the 1960s to emerge from being one of the world’s poorest states to middle income status, while maintaining a multiparty system throughout, there still remained room for improvement.

He said the country’s economy had been too dependent on a single commodity, diamonds - for too long, and the need to diversify the national revenue base was clear in order to address social challenges.

Also, the democratic system required an independent parliament equipped to fulfil its mandate to legislate for peace, order and good governance, as well as to provide an oversight role.

Mr Keorapetse said the country’s Parliament was currently seized with debating the twelfth National Development Plan (NDP 12), which he hoped would provide a direction towards economic diversification.

He noted growing discontent in African states that democracy was failing to deliver jobs, development and to curb inequality, and the continent was now seeing increased overthrow of governments outside the democratic electoral system - Madagascar being the latest of recent examples of the rising phenomenon of the coup d’états on the continent. ENDS