Bursting at the seams from the hustle and bustle of hawkers, hustlers and all kinds of sidewalk retailers, Tsheko-Tsheko Street in Maun’s Old Mall looks like a pig’s breakfast, and thereby hangs a tale.
Before COVID-19 put hundreds of tourism industry workers out on the street, precisely from March 2020, Tsheko-Tsheko had an air of order. Today the street is undoubtedly an optical manifestation of COVID-19 pandemic’s after-effects on Ngamiland’s tourism sector, and Botswana in general.
That parade, which stretches from the main post office to Centre Lodge, has turned to Queer street, jam-packed with traders, who are obviously not carrying out any brisk business. On the contrary, would-be new and evidently inexperienced traders have squeezed themselves in that space with the hope of catching a stray fish.
Neither is there order on Tsaro Street that branches out from Tsheko Tsheko Street which is lined by fast-food chicken outlets of Nandos, KFC and Chicken Licken A hotchpotch of merchandise is being sold that include food stuff, Chinese-manufactured clothing and ‘selaula’ (second-hand clothing from Europe and North America).
Similarly, the space between the NDB and KFC, which has over the years managed to successfully brand itself as a vegetable market for informal traders, has not escaped the onslaught. The vegetable traders are being hemmed in and squeezed out by the influx of new and desperate entrants.
Elsewhere in the town, street eateries that include both sheltered and open establishments, and ‘mekwetjepe’ outlets have sprang up along the main road arteries. Most of these eateries have been closing as quickly as they open, clearly due to over-trading.
On the other side the Mekwetjepe outlets have been carrying out brisk business until last weekend when a town-wide police operation pounced on them for allegedly providing a lucrative market for stolen cattle. This high octane entrepreneurial spirit, albeit laced with a high dosage of negative peculiarity, took-off after the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the aftermath of the March-June 2020 lockdown.
Most of these street hustlers were thrown out by the collapse of the twin-pillars of Ngamiland’s economy, tourism and livestock sectors.
A toxic combination of lockdowns and restrictions on domestic and international travel effectively closed down the tourism sector affecting not only the hospitality industry directly but many other auxiliary supply and service sectors that include retail, finance and many others. Consequently there is less money circulating in the local economy and the much-needed foreign currency for the national economy.
Even efforts to boost the tourism sector by opening up the facilities after the lockdowns have proven to be a poisoned chalice. For instance, after the July 2020 President’s Day holiday, during which the government unwisely and unconditionally permitted inter-zonal travel, Ngamiland experienced a fatal spike in coronavirus infection cases.
Similarly, a spike was recorded after the Christmas holiday leading to high infection rates and these were followed by high number of deaths that continued until late August 2021.
As such it was with apprehension that the industry hosted the tourists during the recent Botswana Independence Day holiday. And this was not a misplaced dread as the hospitality industry is often the first to be closed down in the aftermath of rising infection rates.
The livestock sector, which is the other mainstay of Ngamiland’s economy, is also limping along – with the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC) leadership crisis at its Lobatse headquarters not inspiring any confidence.
It was shockingly revealed that the BMC had been without a CEO since the last one, Boitumelo Mogome-Maseko left under a cloud in April. The parastatal’s representatives recently suffered an indignity of being chased away from appearing before the Parliamentary Committee on Statutory Bodies and State Enterprises.
Dearth of leadership notwithstanding, the parastatal’s latest price increase is a welcome development for farmers in Ngamiland. The BMC on September 1 increased the livestock purchase price from P23 to P28/kg for carcases of over 160kg. The BMC has been struggling to get livestock supplies, primarily due to agonisingly late payments to farmers, which normally take more than three months.
Whether the parastatal will live up to its commitment to a payment turnaround of 14 days after slaughter remains to be seen.
Even the privately-owned abattoir in Maun, Ngamiland Abattoir has not been helpful as the farming community has consistently criticised it for charging “criminal” slaughter fees. The abattoir is to raise normal slaughter fee with effect from November 1 from P630 to P700 per animal for emergency slaughter. Comparatively, the national slaughter rates range between P150 and P250. Further the private abattoir offers the desperate farmers purchase price range of P16.50 – P18 per kilogramme.
According to the latest report from Statistics Botswana, the fishing sector, which has for generations provided income to many households, has recorded a decline of 8.4%. This is attributable to hydrological drought that hit the region in the past two years, though.
However, it is the almost collapsed tourism sector that will need urgent resuscitation. For the much-anticipated new normalcy to take root and herald in the revival of the sector, government need to refocus its COVID-19 strategy.
President Masisi’s administration has squandered the golden opportunity to improve on the rundown and equipment-staved public health facilities and the deplorable sanitation crisis in most public schools, particularly in Ngamiland.
Government similarly failed to procure personal protective equipment (PPEs) and vaccines timeously. Health and other frontline workers are inadequately protected throughout the country in their fight against the raging pandemic. Failure to procure both the PPEs and vaccines has resulted in Botswana having one of the highest infection rates in the world.
It is an agonising surprise that a high middle-income country with a small population of about 2.4 million has so far only managed to fully vaccinate about 300,000 citizens. That basically means the majority of Batswana are sitting ducks to be picked out by the chill-seeking COVID-19 missiles.
At the advent of the pandemic, many tourism companies responded enthusiastically and generously to the government’s appeal for funding. And many tourism companies continue to assist residents in the remote parts of the Okavango with basic food stuff and other amenities.
However, government’s lack of accountability on how it used the donated funds from the private sector and public funds drawn from Botswana’s foreign reserves has disappointed many in the tourism sector.
Absurdly, government has at times been outright hostile when be called upon to account for the COVID-19 funds.
The reluctance to account, coupled with failure to procure PPEs and vaccines has led to charges of corruption. The critics point out that neighbouring Zimbabwe and Zambia have been able to manage their pandemic better by procuring PPEs and vaccines because there were tough on COVID-19 looters from the onset.
For instance, in both countries, health ministers and other officials were arrested after being implicated in coronavirus-related corrupt activities. This, argue the critics, sent out a strong message to would-be looters that their activities would not be tolerated.
On the other hand in Botswana, besides the frequent reshuffling of officials that include health minister, permanent secretaries, health directors and other senior government officials; there had been no convincing explanation for the failure to address the pandemic-related problems.
As part of Business Botswana, the tourism sector’s offer to assist government’s evidently faltering fight against COVID-19 through vaccine purchase early in the year was rebuffed by the latter, under the pretext that such an arrangement will interfere with its vaccination strategy.
Recently, however, government has belatedly indicated its willingness to allow Business Botswana to assist in the procurement process.
The tourism sector is also dismayed to see President Masisi prioritising the state’s acquisition of juicy prime chunk of land in Moremi Game Reserve and that of Tautona Lodge in hospitality accommodation-starved Ghanzi.
As a result of these shenanigans, the initial public goodwill to government’s COVID-19 fund appeal has collapsed under the weight of government’s immoderation.
Many players in the tourism sector contacted by Sunday Standard are unanimous that “vaccine is the best defence”. The sector has consistently called for an extensive vaccination campaign as tourists from the region’s major tourism markets of Europe and North America are unlikely to risk visiting a country with low vaccination rates.
A fact that was not lost to Zimbabwe, which kicked-off its COVID-19 vaccination campaign at their premiere tourism destination – Victoria Falls area
However, as of this week Botswana’s vaccination rate stood at about 300,000 fully-vaccinated residents.
The coordinator of Ngami District Health Management Team (DHMT) in Maun, Dr Sandra Maripe revealed that as of October 13, 24% (16,025) of the targeted number of 71,725 have been fully vaccinated. She added that 26,689 residents have taken their first dose.
“And the aim is to vaccinate at least 85% of the target population,” she noted.
She said that there are 45 vaccination sites as well as 63 camps being covered in the delta. At least five private facilities have also been drafted into the campaign, she said, adding that they work closely with civic organisation in all aspects of the COVID-19 campaign.
Dr. Maripe said the vaccination campaign is going well. “Batswana have accepted the vaccines and do wish to be vaccinated,” she said.
However, a local medical practitioner who preferred anonymity for professional reasons has argued that given the sluggishness of the national vaccination campaign, government should be realistic and start placing orders, at this early stage, for the new anti-viral drug by Merck.
He charged that since the COVID-19 Task Team seemingly does not believe in the dictum that ‘vaccine is best defence’ available they should be aiming for the new drug in order to realise their COVID-19’s motto of: ‘Remember a vaccine is not a cure.’
According to interim results of a study released on October 2, the new drug significantly reduces the risk of hospitalisation and death in people who take it early in the course of their COVID-19 illness.
The report further noted that it is the first oral antiviral found to be effective against this coronavirus. The fact that the drug is likely to come in a pill form makes it highly accessible as it could then be sourced from pharmacies.
All of the currently available antiviral medicines available, including remdesivir and the monoclonal antibodies, must be administered through an IV in a medical setting.
