Our overrated classification as a model of prudent economic management of resources masks our mediocre thinking capacity. We have dismally failed to exploit to the fullest extent whatever comparative advantages we had when we produced diamonds cheaply. We continue to fail to exploit our mineral and tourism resources to the fullest. At the heart of these failings is our public service and its leadership.
What justification can we give for the continued retention of Rre Molale as Permanent Secretary to the President? He has been PSP for more than ten years. The Public Service Act was formulated during his reign. He failed to plan for the costs of its coming into effect. What possible attributes can he bring to the negotiation table on the new diamond deal that can benefit this country? I submit that he is more a liability than an asset.
We must realize that the effects of Rre Molale’s tenure will outlast his presence. In much the same way that the effects of the 2008 economic recession will be felt long afterwards, the effects of Rre Molale’s retention as Permanent Secretary to the President when Rre Mogae left his position as president will be felt in years to come. It is time Rre Molale contributed to the advancement of this country by stepping aside.
What is the point of trying to attract foreign direct investment relying on attributes that every other country in SADC has? What is the point of pretending that attributes like a small unskilled, scattered population, and high utility costs do not work against attributes that every other country in SADC has? We pretend too much and fail to look at the very obvious shortcomings of our country. In the process we keep on harping about diversification instead of facing the truth about our country.
We need to realize that the sole purpose of an economic activity is to meet the current and future needs of our people. Our people need meaningful jobs that compliment their dignity and sense of self worth. How can anybody in their right mind believe that an economy that cannot support half a million jobs is a successful economy and is evidence of prudent economic management? How can any self-respecting leader hold that an economy that cannot create meaningful employment for the youth of his country is evidence of prudent management?
What we need to do is appreciate that the economic model that we have followed ever since independence has not served us well. The economic crash of 2008 was a blessing in that it exposed the soft underbelly of our over glorified economic management. Sure our leaders tell us that they can draw on our foreign reserves but how many new meaningful jobs were created by this? I submit that none were created.
We need to invest our best minds in looking at how best to use our mineral and tourism resources. I submit that our current institutional framework for generation and implementation of ideas makes it impossible for us to engage our best minds in the interests of this country. I am yet to hear anybody from our public service tell me and the nation what is wrong with the suggestion I made in the public domain about how we should look at our mineral rights law. I submit that given the resources in terms of finance and human resource capital the public service should be in a position to tell the nation why my suggestion is not viable or in the best interests of Botswana.
We cannot afford to have a public service that withdraws into a cocoon and fails to engage in open debate of issues that have a bearing on the economic viability of our country. We cannot afford to have a public service that hides behind institutional frameworks in a manner that stifles exploration of ideas. It does not make sense and is a form of intellectual cowardice on the part of the public service to keep quite. I would not care to be a president if the people who serve in my executive lack the courage to engage with a private individual.
Some of us have always seen the public service to be a glorified form of welfare. What value or product does the public service really give to this country? They are no better than an army during peacetime – it is just that they do not wear a uniform. At least with the army there is no pretence that it produces anything. Its main function is to deter and wait and be ready to fight. The public service on the other hand must constantly engage in the ideas in battlefield. Why is it more important and beneficial for the public service to react to an editorial in a private newspaper than to a submission by a private citizen that shows the lack of imagination in the leadership of the public service?
I wish the president had a button to press in order for the monthly salaries of permanent secretaries to be paid into their accounts. I would then suggest that he fails to press the button on the due date. The permanent secretaries would then get to know what it means not to be paid on time. They will also get to know that we have no obligation to pay them for doing nothing. The president can before pressing the button for payment of salaries ask for a report of what new progressive ideas, that improve the economic situation of our people the Permanent Secretary to the President and other Permanent Secretaries have come up with in the last month.
I believe that our economic model attracts the wrong form of foreign investor. We attract people who target revenues from diamonds, other minerals and tourism. The royalties and taxes from minerals are used to pay public sector salaries and these are used to buy goods and services from foreign retailers. We should rather attract investors who themselves create new sources of wealth. We tax our own people and then pay them salaries to buy from foreign retailers and we wonder why our people do not seem to accumulate wealth. Our economy for all its over-glorification by western agencies is a siphoning economy. We get money from minerals and the foreign retailers siphon this and we fail to see this because someone has told our permanent secretaries that allowing people to take profits out is good for business.
I must not be understood to be suggesting that investors should not take out their profits. I am suggesting that we should ensure that the profits they take out come from alternative sources of wealth that they themselves have generated, instead of those that have a direct link to mineral royalties, tourism and taxes. It is only if we do this that we can have our economy diversified. If we do not take this route we will continue to harp on about diversification without much success unless we finance such diversification ourselves. We however minimize our ability to finance diversification by allowing foreign entities to take the profits out of our mineral, tourism and tax revenues.
I could not help but marvel at the statement by our president that it is as easy to remove sanction imposed on the leaders of ZANU-PR as it is to impose them. I mean we are talking about a leader of a government that has failed to formulate a citizen economic empowerment policy for a period in excess of five years after a motion was passed by parliament. It seems it is difficult to accommodate your own people but it is relatively easy to marginalize your own people.
Zimbabwe now has diamonds complimented by a large and skilled population, good agricultural lands and gold. This means there are really only two economies in SADC; South Africa and Zimbabwe. The sooner we disabuse ourselves of the pretence that we are an economic powerhouse, the sooner we will get on with the job of engaging our best thinkers to find solutions that ensure the betterment of our peoples lives, instead of keeping in positions of power people who, with due respect, have demonstrated a remarkable lack of imagination.
Our failure to formulate a citizen economic empowerment law is a non-tariff barrier to our people’s participation in the mainstream economy. Is there any real difference between economic sanctions, tariffs and absence of a law that will make it easier for our people to participate in the mainstream economy? For all his change of heart on the Zimbabwe situation Rre Khama’s government must likewise show a change of heart as regards his own people’s participation in the mainstream economy. Can someone please demonstrate to me how making it difficult for unemployed and retrenched citizens to get distributors and trading licenses helps grow our economy?
For so long as we allow people to grow within a public service that lacks imagination, ideas have to come from private individuals. Our president has a positive duty to create a framework that forces the public service to interrogate ideas that come from private individuals in an open and transparent manner. To paraphrase Innes C.J. the public service exits for the country and not the other way round. We cannot build a country on the back of an institution that lacks imagination and is defensive and is dominated by intellectual cowards. What is the point of having a PhD in economics and lacking the courage to engage with someone who does not have a degree in economics?
