There is perhaps not a greater predicament that Botswana faces as a nation today than ever growing levels of youth unemployment.
The situation is made all the worse by lack of imagination on the part of those in power, which is made all the more unbearable by the current state of the economy.
We cannot forever blame it on the economy.
We need to go ahead as a nation and show that notwithstanding what factors are beyond us, we can in the meantime try to influence those factors that are within our power.
And there are quite a few.
What we need is a paradigm shift.
We cannot use old ways to resolve problems that have been with us for over 30 years now.
This means that we can no longer rely on the fragmented schemes that our government has hobbled together to take care of the situation.
The United Nations has recently said youth unemployment is one of the biggest security threats facing the world.
We cannot agree more.
In fact here the United Nations could easily have been referring to Botswana alone.
While a few years ago HIV/AIDS was a single security threat that we had to confront as a nation, today the challenge is youth unemployment.
The same fortitude and zeal with which we fought and mitigated HIV/AIDS might be just what we will need to fight youth unemployment and all the ills that come with it.
Given the magnitude and indeed gravity of the problem, what is need upmost is goodwill on the part of those in power.
There is also a need by Government to engage the private sector to help come up with solutions.
Without partnerships, very little will be achieved.
As Sunday Standard we will be the first to admit that Government alone cannot be expected to resolve this one.
What the Government needs to do is provide leadership and coordination.
Making it difficult for business to make investments or making it hard for companies wanting to settle here can hardly be the good starting point in our fight against youth unemployment.
We need to review our immigration policies; otherwise we will be overtaken by other countries that are showing flexibility in their policies to use foreign investments to fight the scourge of unemployment, especially among the young people.
Clearly our Government is drowned by the scale of the problem.
They often come across as on a frolic of trial and error.
Nobody knows for sure what they really want to achieve, which is understandable given the scale of problem.
But we want to say if it means reintroducing Tirelo Sechaba, albeit by any other name, government has to be clear and honest to the nation on what it intends doing.
Right now it seems like there is no leadership, on what agenda we want to set for the nation when it comes to the future of young people.
The ongoing inexplicable behavior at Maun, if it’s indeed the act of students goes a long way to demonstrate that we have brought about a whole generation of young people who do not have a reason to feel accountable to their nation.
Not only are they a lost generation, they also feel that because their country has done nothing for them, they too have no reason to give anything back.
Otherwise how do we explain a situation where a snake head was found in a classroom in Maun Secondary School?
Or how do we explain a situation where a dog was killed and its parts spluttered all over the school rooms?
Even sociologists will be hard-pressed to come up with plausible explanations of just where our country is headed.
Our fear is that if the tide is not stemmed very soon we are going to face up to increased crime as these young people who as all evidence will show they have become too envious will start attacking those people who they would identify as well off and as probable reasons for their own misfortune in life.
Businesses, especially through BOCCIM should come to the party and make suggestions to government on how to confront the scourge.
The fact of the matter is that we cannot continue as if it’s business as usual.
