08 Apr 2026

In the bustling streets of Botswana’s cities, towns and villages, a phrase echoes through the crowds, ‘Eish, re imetswe’. It is a silent scream, a whispered plea, a desperate cry for relief. ‘Re imetswe,’ is a phrase commonly used almost everywhere; it is used in situations where folks are fighting battles on multiple fronts. 

Broken relations from romantic to family relationships, unemployment, the weight of high bills, inflation squeezing everyone’s wallet, health battles, low business and the state of being broke, are many battles that many find themselves entangled in.

Different people react differently to the challenges, but many feel a heavy weight on their shoulders; they carry a burden so heavy it feels unshakeable.

For Fela Maela, a beautiful lady in her late 30’s, an entrepreneur, a graduate and a hustler, it’s a reality check that hits home every day.

Every morning before dawn, she drags herself out of bed. Her body screaming from fatigue, but because the day will not wait for her weak body to recover, she gets up to face her daily reality.

Around 8am she is already by her stall in front of Ntshe House in Francistown, ready to serve customers with her commodities ranging from perfumes, pre-loved clothes, drinks and an assortment of snacks and sweets.

Having been operating her stall for more than five years now, Maela, a Bobonong native, feels the impact of the economic meltdown as she now experiences low sales as people tend to spend less in the current state.“Most of my customers are government employees who work in Ntshe House. Their buying power has really dropped, this means reduced sales and revenue on my side,” she said. As a mother of two, depending on this business to care for her children, this really disheartens her, making life more difficult than it has ever been.

With many other small hustlers also out to eke a living, this saturates the market even further, making the few remaining customers a market way too small for the countless hustlers.

“Everyone tends to have a small business. Even government employees opt to have side hustles as their salaries no longer sustain them hence they resort to selling the same items that we sell like snacks, clothes and perfumes, “she added.

There are times when Maela knocks off without having sold much, and the days of almost zero sales are becoming too common, and their frequency is affecting her ability to take care of her bills which include rental, groceries and other necessities.

This, coupled with other incidents that she sometimes experiences such as her stock being stolen, customers not paying for goods taken on credit as well as unfavourable weather conditions make her situation gloomier. 

The business being her sole source of income adds salt to the wound, and while she can easily hide her sorrow behind her beautiful smile, a storm of uncertainty is usually raging deep within her soul.

Maela carries exhaustion, despair and the bitter taste of life’s realities.

“Indeed re imetswe, we are under a lot of pressure; the low and unstable income caused by selling without profits is draining us. Nako tse dingwe o kgona go tswa le P10 tota o sa mo rekisa,” she said.With the cost of living getting out of reach every day for many people, people are left with no money and Maela believes this plays a role in affecting thee poor mental of many people.

“We stay in survival mode, we live from hand to mouth, we don’t have savings. We toil and toil just so that we can pay rentals and buy groceries,” she explained.

Maela acknowledges that this reality is also hitting hard on families, with unemployed women venturing into all sorts of small businesses to augment their husbands’ and partners’ salaries. However, the small businesses often fail to help because they struggle from the onset due to market constraints.

Also, with unemployment taking its toll on the majority of the citizens especially the youth, she believes Batswana are indeed overwhelmed.

However, with the situation escalating daily, Maela feels Batswana should brace themselves for even tougher times as it seems the road ahead will be longer than thought.

Re imetswe is not just a phrase, it speaks to the back-breaking burden that many Batswana are carrying just to survive any given day.

Meanwhile, a mental health and psychosocial support practitioner, also a counsellor, Dr Blinkie Oteng said the phrase ‘re imetswe’ is more than a statement but a psychological and emotional distress signal. Dr Oteng perceive the statement to be reflecting a population carrying invisible burdens, financial pressure, relationship pain, grief and unmet expectations.

“When people say re imetswe, they are not just tired, they are overwhelmed beyond their coping capacity, and if not addressed, this state can significantly affect mental, physical and social wellbeing,” she remarked. Nonetheless, Dr Oteng agrees that even in that state of being overwhelmed, help is possible.

“When we speak, when we are heard supported; the weight begins to lift. ENDS