In the same way that Government should not be expected to create wealth, it would be wrong for us as a nation to expect Government to create jobs.
That role, in our view belongs to the private sector.
But for the private sector to be so empowered, it needs to be better organized than is currently the case.
As a country Botswana finds itself in a unique situation where government has more money than its people and the private sector combined.
That is not what obtains in countries that claim to be free market economies like we do.
The excessive overreach of Government should be reduced.
While Government is certainly crowding out the private sector, there is also a clear lack of ambition on the part of the private sector.
Business Botswana, which is supposed to be the voice of business resembles a Government department in its lack of agility and lack of innovation.
We have argued in the past for the formation of yet another business organization that could compete with Business Botswana.
We believe there is ample scope for two more such organizations. Such organizations should be niche oriented, more focused and totally detached from Government.
The current Business Botswana in our view is too pro government and much less inclined to business needs.
Business Botswana is less creative, too reactive and less generative when it comes to new ideas.
Business Botswana should not provide itself as a cover for government ineptitude.
We need pro-business organizations that could come up with own ideas instead of simply reacting to an environment ÔÇô positive or negative ÔÇô created by government and government policies.
Businesses should never be under any doubts of the true value of their membership to an organization such as Business Botswana, yet that is what is currently the case.
Business Botswana seems to be overly comforted by the safety in numbers that it offers to businesses. But looked closely, this organization fails to appreciate the innate differences in various sectors, much less the inherent differences of one business to the other one next door.
As a result Business Botswana is imprisoned by its ages old straight jacket mentality of one size fits all.
This should not be misinterpreted to mean Business Botswana should be at loggerheads with Government. We are not calling on Business Botswana to adopt maximalist positions in its engagements with Government.
In fact to the contrary!
We are well aware of the importance of liasing with Government, not least because of the overarching power and size of Botswana Government which sprawls every economic sector.
But we are totally uncomfortable with the posture adopted by Business Botswana where they are essentially an extension if not representative of government or better still a governing party in business.
The organisation’s explicit dovish position is not always good for business.
Back to employment creation, there is need for fresh thinking not least because of the size of the problem, that in other countries would long have been declared a national security crisis.
The army of unemployed young people have now become political pawns in the ongoing contest for political power.
We think that is deplorable.
Not long ago a leader of opposition said he could easily create over 100 000 jobs within a short space of time.
The fact that he did not say how leads us to believe that he simply pulled the figure from his mind as a way to win political mileage.
We think this too is unpardonable.
