Going through official speeches by members of cabinet, it becomes immediately clear that this administration has made the fight against poverty their most primary objective.
We have nothing against that.
In fact, we welcome government concerted efforts to fight poverty.
What we however have problems with are modalities used. In whatever form, poverty is objectionable and, when allowed to take root over long time, can itself turn into a national security threat.
Poverty degrades people and takes away their dignity and self-esteem.
It forces them to lower their sense of worth.
Poverty, as our government has so rightly come to conclude, is a source of many other social ills, including crime, violence and general lawlessness.
As a country, we have to concede that many of our traditional social fabrics that have over the years supported, cushioned and even shielded people against poverty have collapsed, not least because of the many societal pressures that our country has in the recent past come under including HIV/AIDS.
It is, therefore, correct that in one way or another government intervention will have to go up.
It is not surprising that the number of people lining up and enlisting for government welfare schemes is growing.
In fact, it’s well in order that, resources allowing, the public budget for such safety nets is sufficiently increased so as to take care of the growing number of recipients.
What we, however, have problems with is an impression that seems to be holding ground that efforts to eradicate poverty could in anyway  be a substitute for employment creation.
No matter how much resources as a country we forward towards poverty eradication, we must bear in mind that commendable as that might be, such graduation from poverty are only temporary. And for as long as such graduation is achieved solely at the behest of government financing it shall forever be dependent on continued government guarantees. That route renders the whole undertaking unsustainable.
Our view is that the most effective and most enduring way to fight poverty is to come up with more sustainable ways to create meaningful employment.
The more people are employed, the less there will be poverty in our midst.
It is our view that our primary goal should be at creating employment, especially permanent jobs.
Many of our young people seem doomed to miserable life of indignity visited on them by many years spent looking for jobs that do not exist.
The government is not entirely to blame.
It should not be the task of government to employ people. Rather that responsibility should fall on the shoulders of the private sector. For their part, what the government needs to do is to empower the private sector to thrive and thus employ more people.
The blame that the government should take is for failing to come up with a regulatory framework that allows the private sector to prosper.
Botswana is the only country we are aware of where the government wealth is so immensely higher than that of citizens and companies put together.
This is an anomaly we should confront.
In a very strange way, our government seems to take it as a compliment that Botswana has a very rich government vis-à-vis its people.
That, to us, is a defect.
It is, therefore, disheartening that instead of continuing on a path to empower the private sector  to be become the economic engine of growth.
As a country we now seem to be deviating and resorting to coming up with short solutions to what essentially long term problems of unemployment that can only be resolved through employment creation.
What our government needs to do is to reward and recognize innovation.
And we are not talking about patronage.
Botswana’s education system continues to churn out multitudes who will never work unless there is a drastic change in the way we do things as a country.
A way has to be found to create a vibrant private sector that is led by entrepreneurs and industrialists who will have the zeal to succeed in the increasingly competitive global market.
There are some welcome aspects of government’s obsession with poverty eradication.
It helps to uplift a number of people who are living in squalid poverty.
But that can only be possible for so many people and for so long.
The moment the treasury goes bust, these same people will be the first downward into the spiral of even more devastating poverty.
Thus even as we try as a nation to issue handouts to the poorest of the poor, we must never forget that the best way to get critical numbers out of poverty is by creating conditions that allow private investments and private capital, by way of nurturing the private sector.
The number of young people who we churn out every year is just too high to be absorbed by a welfare system, however big the amount of money we channel into the system.
