Just like the Covid-19 pandemic is purely a scientific-based challenge requiring in large measure scientific solutions, the face of Botswana at Dubai Expo 2020 should be largely led by economists who speak and sleep economic concepts. Politicians, just like they have exacerbated the situation with (mis)managing Covid-19 pandemic in more ways than one, have not done Botswana any justice in terms of delivering the message economists would have. Based on the uninspiring tone of the message I heard the Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Mmusi Kgafela deliver at Dubai Expo 2020, I could not help but conclude Botswana stood less to benefit therefrom. This because the Minister’s message and for all intents and purposes, was expected to set the scene for what was expected to follow. That said, let me get to the meat of this conversation.
For Botswana to make a lasting impression on forums like the Dubai Expo 2020, her domestic challenges, some self-created for political expediency, should be dealt with. No investor worth his/her salt would like to invest in a country riddled with questionable political and financial uncertainties. It is political uncertainty that leads to financial uncertainty.
Towards the 2019 general election, the political leadership resolved to increase public service salaries with funds it did not have or realistically stood to have in the immediate period purely for political expediency. Put bluntly, political leadership was simply buying the recipients of the sad increase to vote for it. At the time preceding the increase, government was operating on a serious deficit. As a consequence, the salary bill shot through the roof which in and of itself caused fiscal instability for the country to pursue sustainable socio-economic development. Latest financial reports released by government indicate that for financial year 2021/22, a P 7.2 billion deficit is forecast while that of financial year 2022/23 stands at P 8.5 billion. The very public service that received salary increases costs government about P 29 billion in the current financial year (about P 2.9 billion per month) from about P 21 billion in the financial year 2017/18. In simple terms, these figures tell a depressing story and that is that, government will not be able to deliver services in all their manifests to the general public. As I write, government is feeling intense heat whereupon urgent public service reforms like substantially reducing the size of the public service are almost a foregone conclusion. In simple terms, some public servants will lose their jobs and by extension, their livelihoods. By any measure, the foregoing is a serious concern for any foreign investor wishing to set up in Botswana. Such investor will seriously view Botswana as a country with serious deficiencies in prudent financial management whose consequences the above figures ably demonstrate.
Also towards the very 2019 general election, political leadership through the Directorate of Public Prosecutions launched the now discredited P 100 billion case wherein Batswana and the world were made to believe such amount of public funds was siphoned out of the Bank of Botswana to among others, finance terrorism. One of the notable recipients of these funds is former President Ian Khama who despite being named in the founding affidavit of the matter, is yet to be indicted. In a country that prides itself in upholding the Rule of Law and all that goes with it, it goes without saying that in this instance, it appears it was a case of the Rule of Man as opposed to the Rule of Law. It is important to mention that since the beginning of this case, its optics have indicated that the dots simply but painfully refused to be joined. The Governor of the Bank of Botswana has on more than one occasion, and consistently so, refuted P 100 billion was ever siphoned from the bank. This notwithstanding, the prosecution agency elected to soldier on with with hope pitted against hopelessness. The end result is that probably as many like me predicted, the P 100 billion ‘theft’ was a mere fabricated political ploy to get at political adversaries like Khama. Justice Dr Zein Kebonang has concluded this was a fabricated case not worth the many documents it was written on. While the matter is appealed, I have opined there are no demonstrable prospects of success. I will be happy to be proved wrong. Why should any foreign investor worth their salt not be apprehensive that when some fabrication could be meted on a former President, what more on a foreigner. Over and above this, Botswana standing in so far as the Rule of Law is concerned has been seriously and painfully shredded probably beyond redemption.
The issue of selective justice by the political leadership has become sharply under the radar. Instruments governing the Public Service have not been used on persons in close proximity to political leadership while ruthlessly used on those believed to be far away from it. In recent times, senior public servants have been dismissed from their positions presumably for violating the same instruments. The recent appointment of the Permanent Secretary to the President while still under the radar of the corruption agency over allegations of receiving undue benefit from a service provider, is testimony to such selective justice. It is almost a foregone conclusion in some quarters that this matter has been swept under the carpet where it might not see the light of day. Only time will tell. The position of Permanent Secretary to the President is no ordinary position in the public service. It requires the holder to be the face and embodiment of the public service in terms of the provisions of the Public Service Act and the ideals/values of the Public Service Charter. The holder of the position I argue as I hereby do, must not be tainted under any perceived or real circumstances for obvious reasons. With the position located in the highest office in the land, why should an investor worth his/her salt not be apprehensive about the conduct of the highest office in the land itself let alone the office of the Permanent Secretary to the President appointed in such unbelievable circumstances?
The matter of the Constitutional Review has been in the public domain ever since it was announced by the President as a campaign tool en route to the 2019 general election. As I write, no significant movement if any with regard to kick-starting the process has been made. Like I have opined in my previous writings, Covid-19 pandemic will forever be largely a scapegoat for both incompetence and failure across the board. It is fair to suggest government will mention the pandemic as having disturbed the process of embarking on the Constitutional Review. It is generally agreed that the President of the Republic of Botswana is endowed with excessive powers that are not healthy for any progressive democracy. It is expected that the Constitutional Review could possibly reduce these powers to the point where the President is not above the law as opposed to the current status quo. The fact that this process is yet to be kick-started is a serious cause of concern not only to foreign direct investors but to Batswana as well. It is a fact that the current Constitution has perfectly worked in favour of the ruling party in so many respects hence the lack of practical urgency to review or amend it.
While Botswana has participated in the Dubai Expo 2020 and for good reasons if I may add, our domestic challenges and circumstances could very well be our own undoing in terms of building sustainable partnerships. The time has long passed when international institutions like Afrobarometer, the World Bank and Transparency International viewed Botswana in the most positive light. In recent times, our scorecard has continued to drop. At the beginning of the term of this administration, a narrative was created that we are entering the era of transformation where the #business as usual will be a thing of the past. I will be bold enough to suggest this was a rhetoric talk like others. If we are still not under the business as usual era, we are worse off. Unless and until we meaningfully deal with our domestic challenges, very little impact if any, will be made at platforms like Dubai Expo 2020. Unless we take ourselves very seriously, no one else will or should. I am prepared to be persuaded otherwise as always. Judge for Yourself.
‘No one is safe until everyone is safe.’ We are still under the clutches of Covid-19 pandemic. Let us continue to adhere to all Covid-19 protocols without fail.
