16 Feb 2025

The political and administrative wings of local councils have been urged to familirise themselves with Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) manifesto.

Addressing mayors, council chairpersons, and their city clerks and council secretaries in Francistown on Thursday, head of a team that drafted the UDC manifesto, Dr Patrick Molutsi, said research revealed a loss of public trust in the previous government.

The UDC, he explained, identified nine key pillars for change, including economic transformation, improvement in democracy and governance, and addressing failures of the previous administration.

These pillars also focused on reforming Botswana’s education system to combat high unemployment among graduates and leveraging international opportunities to create export markets for labour, he siad.

Dr Molutsi stressed that the new councillors should be agents of change, custodians of the UDC manifesto, and that the government would audit each council and ministry based on its tenets.

He noted that these pillars would be incorporated into the next National Development Plan and that the recent budget proposal reflected the manifesto’s priorities.

Another speaker, Dr Howard Sigwele, also of the UDC team,  said 21 per cent of Batswana lived in poverty, lacking access to food, particularly women and youth in both urban and rural areas.

He attributed this to income inequality persisting since independence.

He also pointed to the underperformance of the agricultural sector since 2006, contributing to food insecurity despite existing policies and programmes, and cited a shortage of arable land as a significant constraint.

Dr Sigwele also addressed the ongoing debate surrounding the promised P1 800 monthly allowance increase for Botswana’s pensioners. He acknowledged that current economic conditions might not immediately support the full implementation of this pledge, hence the P1 400.

While emphasising that this was a failure of the UDC’s commitment, Dr Sigwele explained that public expenditure constraints were the primary factor.

He stated that as the economy improved, the government would fulfill its commitment.
He further clarified that the proposed minimum living wage of P4 000 per month would only apply to the formal sector.

On other issues, Dr Sigwele explained the UDC government’s decision to lift the previous administration’s ban on vegetable imports. He argued that the ban negatively impacted trade relations and was ultimately counterproductive.

Using the analogy of school uniform manufacturing, he posed the question: “If we produce school uniforms in Botswana, would we close our borders to imported uniforms?”

The answer, he asserted, was a clear “No,” highlighting the inconsistency of restricting vegetable imports while advocating for an open market in other sectors.

The lifting of the ban, therefore, was presented as a move to foster healthy trade relationships and avoid protectionist measures that could harm Botswana’s economic interests. ENDS