17 Nov 2024

Tuesday afternoon will not be just another for Botswana, history will be recoded as President Advocate Duma Boko will give his maiden State-of-the-Nation-Address (SONA).

Already, Botswana has demonstrated to the world how it earned the label ‘shining example of democracy’ when President Boko’s Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) won the 2024 general elections and ending Botswana Democratic Party’s (BDP) 58-year administration, an occurrence that happened with ease between Advocate Boko and former president, Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi.

As he ascends to the podium tomorrow, President Boko will not only shoulder voices of victory, but as well, the burden of hope, enduring expectation and setting the tone for his new administration.

The SONA comes at a time when the country’s economy is reportedly not doing well, owing to the underperforming of the economy’s mainstay, the diamonds.

Last week, President Boko told reporters that the country was in dire economic and financial situation, the words which were repeated days later by Vice President, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe when fielding media questions, stating that the economy was in a dire situation that it was initially thought.

In an interview, Trade unionist and Botswana Sector of Educators Trade Union (BOSETU) secretary general, Mr Tobokani Rari said the SONA was an opportunity for the President to address the issue of the country’s economy.

“Our expectation is that President Boko should, during his address, explain how the economy is and how it is likely to perform in the short, medium and long term,” Mr Rari said.

The President, he said, must also explain the challenges that the country was experiencing, achievements attained, and the plans hatched to address the challenges.

He said President Boko should also explain to the nation whether the promises contained in his party manifesto would be achievable either in the short, medium or long term.

Mr Rari said he also expected the President to speak on the issue of employment creation, which remained one of the daunting challenges the country was faced with, adding that the new administration ought to share with the nation plans to stimulate the economy with an aim to create jobs and address the high and growing rate of unemployment.

“We expect to hear how the President intends to turn around an otherwise ailing education system in which it has become a common occurrence that failure is celebrated as merit,” said Mr Rari and added that government should revolutionise the education system so that it was more practical and imparted more skills as opposed to being theoretical.

He said he hoped the new government would among others, prioritise labour relations, through cultivating an enabling environment for bargaining both in the public and private sector by functionalising the Public Service Bargaining Council and creation of industrial labour councils in the private sector.

“The other priority of the new government should be to promptly address economic corruption so that we can have a country free of economic corruption and crime. Economic corruption and crime have bled this country huge sums of national resources that could have been used to benefit ordinary Batswana,” he said.

The sentiments on corruption were also shared by Farmers United chairperson, Mr Ratsela Molefe, who said there was need to address rampant corruption because universally, corruption bred unemployment, poverty, wealth distribution inequality, crime and other socio economic challenges.

“We must not deal with the symptoms, we must deal with the cause,” Mr Molefe said and explained that such an approach would simultaneously address issues of unemployment.

He said the new government should deal with the issue of food security, one the biggest threat to the country.

Restriction on importation of some vegetables, he said should continue in order to capacitate local farmers to grow the agriculture sector.

“The import ban should continue, we cannot afford to lift it. Botswana must be self-sustainable when it comes to food. We cannot afford to be relying on another nations to feed us,” said Mr Molefe.

He saw the ban as laying a solid foundation for the country’s next generation of farmers, to enable them to compete in the local economy and even globally.

Mr Molefe said the country’s horticulture industry was still developing and needed to be protected, to grow and ready it for the African Continental Free Trade Area.

Maintaining the ban, he said the country would reduce expenditure on the agriculture sector because there was need to close the gaps and inefficacies of the systems in place.

Among other expectations from the SONA, the public would be eager to hear the President address UDC manifesto promises among them, P4 000 living wage, increasing living allowance for tertiary and vocational training institutions students to P2 500, increasing old age pension to P1 800, reduction in water and electricity tariffs and distribution of free sanitary pads to female learners in primary and secondary schools. ENDS