The sector, which is the second contributor to the national economy, after mining, could not evade a direct hit as it is premised on both domestic and international travel.
COVID-19’s control measures markedly places special emphasis on movement restrictions and socialisation. Yet these attributes are at the core of the sector’s successful operation.
In fact, before Botswana had recorded its first COVID-19 case, the sector had already felt the effects through travel restrictions from key European and North American markets.
As the Hospitality and Tourism Association of Botswana (HATAB) aptly noted at the time that the sector had “already suffered substantial losses of business and value.” The hotels were operating at less than 10% of capacity while many guesthouses and camps had closed, it added.
And this was a terrifying experience for many industry operators.
General manager of Maun Lodge, Ngonidzashe Shumba described it as a “very stressful situation characterised by frustration, uncertainty and despair as we didn’t know what was going to happen tomorrow. Our livelihoods were about to be taken away.”
Maun Lodge is one of the major players in Ngamiland with a 140 room hotel that boast the biggest 500-capacity conference facility with staff compliment of more than 140.
But for new entrants into the hospitality industry the crisis could have not been more catastrophic. Parkview Hotel in Maun had hardly opened its doors to clients when the disaster struck. According to its proprietor, Kostantinos Markus, Parkview had opened on November 19, 2019 against the rumbling coronavirus thunder in faraway Asia, specifically Wuhan in China. But soon the virus rudely made its presence felt on the shores of Thamalakane River.
“Rona re ne rele bati ka re butse ka nako ya COVID-19. The outbreak was unfair to us. We had just started operating and had expected to start recouping our investment. But that was not to be. Instead we experienced zero occupancy,” recalled Markus this week at his 40-room establishment.
Another major player in the tourism sector, Wilderness Safaris had just completed multi-million pula renovations of their flagship safari camps of Mombo and Little Mombo as well as King’s Pool in Linyanti. The then newly-appointed Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Philda Kereng had officially opened the rebuilt camps in March – some two weeks before the coronavirus disaster fully struck Botswana.
The industry, under the collective leadership of HATAB and individual operators vigorously responded to attendant challenges with some measure of success.
From the start the organisation aptly identified the pandemic for the menace it is. It concluded that COVID-19 is not only a health crisis but also “an acute economic crisis and existential threat to society as we know it.”
Ostensibly due is its dubious tag as first local casualty of the pandemic, the sector moved swiftly to come up with response proposals to government, many of which found their way into the national response plan.
As early as March 30, 2020, the association’s members had started offering their facilities to government to use for hospitalisation, quarantine and isolation.
In addition to proposing for development of an emergency COVID-19 Containment and Recovery Plan called for an establishment of an emergency fund. The HATAB proposal also included the strict observance of requisite health protocols such as social distancing, sanitising and wearing masks. It called for aggressive testing and isolation, and awareness campaign.
The association also recommended wage costs relief; emergency credit for firms; loan guarantee scheme; three-month moratorium; tax relief; accelerated payment of outstanding invoices for services to parastatals; extension of leases; and revalidation of visas on future dates.
The sector also expressly called for the concerted vaccination drive, noting that the countries that will succeed in the competition to attract tourists “will be those that present tourists with the lowest risk of contracting the virus. The best way to achieve this, and also to protect our own people from risk of contracting the virus, is to ensure that the people with whom the tourists will interact on their visit, being airline, airport and tourism staff, have also been vaccinated.”
The industry even offered “to fund the costs of vaccinating its own staff and also to mobilising all of its resources to the procurement, storage, distribution and administration of the vaccines. Subject to costs, it is believed that many businesses will also be willing to fund the costs of vaccines for some family members of staff, to reduce risks of cross-infection and improve the welfare of the families concerned. The relatively small numbers of people involved mean that this objective is completely achievable and should be a high priority.”
But this offer was initially rebuffed on the pretext that it will conflict with government strategy.
However, to its credit government was agreeable with most of these proposals and recommendations and were implemented with varying degrees of success.
The industry has generally applauded government financial facilities such as government wage subsidy to the industry, which has averted dreaded retrenchments in the hospitality industry. Both Shumba and Markus revealed with relief that as result their establishments did not retrench staff.
There were some hitches and controversies with some of recommendations, though. Aggressive testing never took-off until the spread of the virus had reached crisis proportions. The initial intent to carry out community testing was abruptly abandoned in favour of contact-tracing testing, thus loosing the opportunity to control the spread of the virus.
At the time, HATAB’s chief executive officer Lily Rakorong noted that “the government’s COVID 2019 Economic Response does not use regulation and moral persuasion adequately to address some of the more pressing needs for firms. Some of these are specific to the Travel and Tourism Industry.”
The association was specifically disappointed with rentals for premises, extension of leases and waivers; and settlement of refunds for cancellations.
HATAB also called on the government to create semblance of certainty, specifically in relation to liquor-selling outlets. “Bans and suspensions of activities should not be done open-ended,” it stated, arguing that “stakeholders should be given lead-time of at least three days before decisions come into effect so that they may prepare themselves.”
This has been a bone of contention even with the country’s residents, who argued that neighbouring South Africa has in place clearly defined levels, which gives businesses the certainty of what to expect in the next level.
In Botswana, government’s abrupt bans and closures have been described by critics as some kind of punishment of the nation by a sadistic administration.
Critics argue that in these trying times of the COVID-19 pandemic uncertainties, residents should be expectantly looking forward to an address by their president to offer counselling and reassurance. But here, the presidential address is awaited gloomily.
In the face of the latest surge on infection cases recorded recently in Maun and Greater Gaborone after the Independence Day holidays, residents have been on tenterhooks as the awaited the President Masisi’s ‘emergency address’ on Wednesday afternoon.
The unintended effect of such haphazard closures have been the influx of unregulated sale of illegally imported liquor and other contrabands from neighbouring countries, particularly South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia at highly inflated prices.
This not only places additional financial burden on the inflation-ravaged residents but also disadvantages the local businesses as well as denying the cash-strapped government the much-needed tax revenue.
As a matter of fact, the pandemic has generally exposed Botswana’s governance and economic structural deficiencies. Not only were the country’s public education and health systems found to be brittle but also of the non-existent of any supply chain.
For instance, the tourism sector is still shocked on government’s misplaced priorities amid the pandemic. Almost two years into the pandemic government is yet to give a convincing report on the use of COVID-19 funds.
The industry could be secretly cursing the proposal for the establishment of a fund, comprising contributions from the state, private sector and individuals.
But the industry must be forgiven for labouring under the illusion that this is Botswana of yesteryear, which was renowned for its financial frugality.
In the last two decades, Botswana leadership has systematically become notorious for looting Funds and Levies. This is in marked contrast with former president Festus Mogae’s handling of the defaulters of the National Development Bank’s Small Borrowers Fund.
In the mid-1990s as a Vice President and finance minister, Mogae single-mindedly resisted politically-orchestrated calls to write-off personal debts to powerful politicians and businessmen. He resolutely demanded the repayments of the NDB loans.
Notably, the defaulters included none other than the sitting president, Sir Ketumile Masire. The latter, and others, paid back the NDP loans.
That was the era when public funds were sacrosanct; not to be gorged on under the cover of political sycophancy and double-speak,
Some few years back, government was criticised for its confusing messaging that seemed to exhort the citizenry to tighten their economic belts whilst the political leadership was busy loosening theirs.
Whilst Mogae and his predecessors required pleas against ‘too much’ frugality (belt-tightening), former President Ian Khama and his predecessor Masisi needed/need constant reminding of the existence of such a belt.
Such reminders are now more urgent than ever given the systematic depletion of funds and levies that by all intents and purposes could be serving the nation in this critical period of the pandemic.
The multi-billion pula funds and levies that readily come to mind are Alcohol Levy, Disaster Management Fund, and National Petroleum Fund. For at least two decades these funds/levies and others are alleged to have been looted.
Had this not been the case, the alcohol levy could be helping out the creative and the hospitality sectors, while the disaster management fund could surely be used for COVID-19 like disasters. The first none Parliamentary-sanctioned dipping into the disaster fund was on April 1, to set up the DIS.
Some years ago, leader of Alliance for Progressives, Ndaba Gaolathe expressed strong suspicion that the NPF could have been a slush fund for the politically connected for many years before Bakang Seretse was caught at it.
The fuel levy could now be driving the battered and limping economy to recovery; without having to resort to the now perennial fuel increases.
In fact, while other governments world-over are pumping money into their economies to resuscitate them, in Botswana residents are being taxed more to do so. The unjustified increases in government services, VAT from 12 to 14%, utilities (electricity and water), are driving the inflation over the roof in an economy that had one of the biggest in economic disparities in the world even pre-Covid as well as one of the highest youth unemployment rates.
These ill-advised increases are likely to make post-Covid recovery a mirage, particularly for the hospitality and tourism sector. Globally, forward-looking governments are investing 10 to 15 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) toward economic recovery. And Botswana should be on that train, instead of taxing the economy into total collapse.
