Whichever way one looks at it, Botswana has one of the most unequal societies on earth.
Ordinarily this should be a concern for all of us, yet we live in a society where those glaring inequalities have now come to be accepted as normal.
The resentment generated by these inequalities are especially strong among the young people, who are by far the biggest demographic sub-set of our population.
There is a strong feeling that the economy works well and better for the rich and their companies.
This has created fault line in our society.
These very deep fissures can no longer go on unattended.
The level of polarisation is now a huge social concern.
And if allowed to simmer any further will morph into a national security matter.
We thus urge all those in positions of authority to look into all these issues before it gets too late.
These inequalities did not spring up overnight.
They are a result of many years of skewed policies the impact of which have never been addressed.
We need to get our economy to work for all of us.
We now have in place ingrained policy systems that invariably work for the rich, while either leaving out the poor or even punishing them.
Our tax system does not inspire public trust and public confidence.
A way has to be found to tax the wealthier more.
This is a basic issue of social justice.
Poor people are happy to contribute to the country by paying taxes.
But such taxes should be fair by way of ensuring that the richer among us pay more.
A groundswell of opinion is building up that our tax regime works for the wealthy members of our society who are able to use expensive lawyers, accountants, auditors and tax experts to circumvent the law and end up paying pretty much nothing on their vast wealth while the poor continue to pay through their noses.
Those in power should look at these public concerns seriously, or else we are going to see populists playing into these concerns by promising unsustainable and unsustainable new arrangements that if implemented would be counter-productive and even destructive to other achievements that this country has made over the years.
A way has to be created to make our tax system both fair and efficient. At the moment it is neither.
It is unfair because it bleeds out the poor more than it does the rich. It is inefficient because it has for a long time been failing to grow a base that could allow more revenue collections from many people and businesses than is currently the case where there are just too many cracks that allow money and potential payers to fall through.
The bottom line is that unless Botswana confronts its ever growing levels of inequalities that permeate every part of society, the country stands to witness a drastic erosion of the gains made in every society.
History shows that an internal conflict is very difficult to happen in a fairer and just society.
Such a conflict is also almost impossible to happen where there is prosperity.
It is alsi not a coincidence that in almost all the countries riven by civil strife, conflict or or war such countries will also be found to be poverty stricken and or unjust in one way or another towards some sections of society.
For us to safeguard our gains we need to move towards where everybody will start to believe and indeed feel that the economy works for them too.