“The most serious of the evils that afflict the world these days are youth unemployment and the loneliness of the old. The old need care and companionship; the young need work and hope but have neither one nor the other, and the problem is they don’t even look for them anymore. They have been crushed by the present.” (Pope Francis, 1 October 2013)
Across Botswana, against a backdrop of widespread concern about unemployment, young people in particular are paying a heavy price for an economic crisis they did not cause, with higher unemployment rates than the rest of the population.
While there has been welcome recognition at governmental level of the need for investment in young people, economic policies alone will not resolve this crisis. It needs to be acknowledged that a root cause of the crisis was the failure to understand that the significance of work extends far beyond paid employment, with crucial personal, social and cultural implications. This is why decent work is a basic human right. In Botswana, that right is denied to many, including thousands of young people.
A deficiency and failure of leadership could easily drive a nation into chaos, especially where there’s little quality advice in evidence at the top level of governance. Difficult and challenging situations in the life of any nation are always the right opportunities for great leaders to prove their mettle. There is no nation that can be at peace when the majority of its citizens have little hope of getting employed. In such grueling circumstances, no welfare support can cushion the painful effects of joblessness.
Youth unemployment has increasingly become a threat to stability and peace in Botswana and recent negative developments this week attest to such. A movement lobbying for unemployment to be addressed held apeaceful protest this week in front of parliament buildings until it was violently broken down by the police. The #ÔÇÄunemployment protest saw protesters dressed in their graduation gowns to show that even with degrees they are still on the streets. What is more concerning is the brutal way that some of the protestors were beaten by the police.
The country’s current state of anomie has brought about general hopelessness to an otherwise active populace. Thus, the Batswana youths, among them thousands of unemployed graduates of tertiary institutions, have been driven to a state of desperation were some have resorted to take to the streets. They appear unable to see any real future for themselves in a country so abundantly blessed with diamonds.
When politicians are elected, they get the mandate and are duty bound to deliver on their promises as espoused in their manifestos, which, for the youths are job creation, affordable quality education and sensible poverty eradication programmes. In this vital area, the government seems to have failed badly, and it is almost oblivious on the way forward.
The leadership will have to explain to Batswana why they think that their tenures are more important than the people upon whose mandate they are in power. A BDP government that is unable to transform itself into an effective vehicle of governmental service delivery can certainly not transform the deteriorating state it is presiding over. The government has failed to keep its promise to combat corruption.
A leader is as good as the counsel he gets. Of course, that also depends on the character of the leader, which always defines the type of leader he is ÔÇô if he is the type that listens, is all knowing or self-centered. What this suggests is that the advisers of President Ian Khama are either not doing their job properly or the President is being misled on issues that are critical to the development of Botswana. There’s an urgent need for the President to reassess his policies and begin to initiate well thought-out policies, to forestall any further dip in the economy. Already, Botswana is suffering from double standards with regard to the war against corruption and alleged money laundering; the main reason it has caught the attention of the US government.
With only a few years before his term ends, the President ought to be refueling his agenda to transform the nation and reinvent himself as an effective leader who could make institutions of state and provide the expected deliverables. The President must recalibrate himself to be able to face the overwhelming challenges successfully. He needs to repackage his agenda to address the immediate needs of the people.
The management of international relations is certainly not one of the strong points of this government as history would record. Our democracy is moving at snail’s pace while the suffering masses continue to cry out over economic alienation.
Botswana is a nation in the throes of job crisis. The country’s economic fortunes are losing headway on a daily basis and life for the ordinary citizen is becoming extremely agonising. It remains to be seen whether the current leadership will manage to snatch the country from jaws of malfunction and steer the country to a radical new paradigm of economic dynamism and national revival.
The fact is, a great national crisis must not overwhelm a leader, but must bring out the best in them. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case with Botswana. We have experienced at least three major national crises that virtually pushed this country to the precipice; notably, power and water shortages, corruption, and joblessness, but those at the helm of affairs never seized on any of these critical occasions to steer the nation towards safe shores.
Regardless, some Batswana still look up to the President to give the country decisive leadership despite some early errors. But there appears to be a subtle feeling in the polity that the President would not be able to stem corruption in his government let alone fight against other problems bedeviling the country. These last few years are definitely the defining moment for the President to transform himself and engrave his name in gold.
