27 Oct 2024

President President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi says the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has led the nation well since independence.

Speaking  during the Duma FM’s presidential Townhall debate at Tlokweng recently, President Masisi dismissed allegations of  poor governance as unfounded.

He indicated that the BDP has come up with good initiatives meant to emancipate the lives of citizens, initiatives that he said even members and leaders of the opposition were enjoying.

“They have actually taken up most of these initiatives, and some of the opposition leaders have even accompanied me on my international trips meant to build relations as seek investors, trips that they blessed,” he said.

He also denied claims that the numerous groundbreakings for mega projects such as water works and roads were meant to lobby votes for his party, but indicated that such projects were the ones shelved due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“These projects were planned when we started our five-year term in 2019, but due to the pandemic we had to shelve most of them, safe for some critical ones.

Now that we are out of that cloud it is time to deliver what we promised to Batswana,” he said.

He also said that his leadership style was the reason Botswana was among the first countries to recover from the COVID -19 pandemic.  Dr Masisi also dispelled suggestions that government had dried up the national coffers, indicating that there was a need to draw from them to implement development projects promised to Batswana.

He also explained that the Government Investment Fund was actually reduced by the need to address COVID-19.

He said that people should celebrate such developments than criticise them.

He however, admitted some short comings by his government such as corruption in government tenders, but said they introspected and addressed such through Development Manager Model.

When quizzed on the P10.2 billion that he once promised from the Chinese government, President Masisi said that the conditions later turned out to be too stiff.

“The funds were meant to go towards developing our roads infrastructure.

The initial agreement was made in principle, but when it was time to put pen to paper we then realised that the interest that the Chinese demanded was just too steep, so we did not take the money,” he said.

He also explained that there were limits of how much Botswana could borrow money in terms of percentage of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and said that the country was still far below that threshold, meaning that the economy is far from collapsing. ENDS