The amount of cattle roaming the streets of Gaborone should be of concern to all of us.
Not only are such cattle an eye sore to international visitors, they also are a serious hazard to motorists.
A first time visitor would be excused to think that Gaborone is a cattle ranch, or a cattle post.
First and foremost, the first responsibility of the cattle should be to the owners.
But when owners have so clearly neglected their responsibilities, we think the City Council must take charge.
Our guess is that the charges for allowing cattle to stray into the city are so low so much so that there is no deterrence.
We call on government to seize the cattle that stray into the city and sell them to the butcheries.
Only when such happens will owners make it a point that they take care of their cattle. Alternatively, the owners should be made to pay higher charges for their negligence.
Botswana has worked very hard to attract investors, but when such people come here and they are met by hundreds of cattle lazily crossing some of the country’s busiest roads, then we forfeit all claims of being taken seriously.
In our view, the failure by cattle owners to care for their livestock is what exacerbates cattle rustling.
Since there has been talk of De Beers relocating from London to Gaborone, we had imagined that as a country we would do certain things differently as a way of meeting even the barest minimum standards that international business people that come here expect.
From the look of things we are still far away.
In fact, it would look like we relocated De Beers operations before we got our act together.
We have been found out, and things are not looking good.
We call on government to do something, by way of empowering the City Council either through tightening the law or providing the necessary resources to drive away the cattle from the city centres.
Another thing that has busted our pretence to being a global destination for international investors is our traffic lights.
More than half of the time, Botswana’s traffic lights are out of order.
While vandalism and drunken driving are mainly to blame, we want to point out that from the look of things, the City Council is also clearly failing.
It is not uncommon to see traffic lights not working for weeks on end. This can greatly diminish the view investors have about Botswana. It is also disturbing in light of the fact that our roads are poor and badly designed.
People who visit Botswana, either to do business or to buy diamonds as a result of the De Beers relocation are people who come from countries that have functional road lights.
When they come here to see lights that are perennially out of order, they have no choice but to downgrade their world view of the entire country.
Another disturbing observation this paper has made is that the capital city is not tidy. It is common to see heaps of uncollected rubbish and plastic bags. The general filth makes us speak volumes about our consciousness when it comes to environmental issues.
People are comfortable about throwing plastic bags, paper and cans around with little regard to the impact of such on the environment.
There is an urgent need to start a clean up campaign to turn Gaborone into a clean City, ideal not only for people to do business but also as habitable living environment for its dwellers. Gaborone has to take the shape of the ideal business destination. Considering that we aspire to be a Diamond hub, our image and the atmosphere require a face-lift.
In our view, the faceÔÇôlift is not only about big buildings but more to do with eliminating the obscuring little things that can easily turn investors away. Cattle roaming the city, unmaintained traffic lights and a generally dirty town are not a good reflection on Botswana’s image.
Against the foregoing, we implore the city council to take charge of the situation.
