Africa-Press – Botswana. Ntlo ya Dikgosi should support government on its mission to attain objectives of the Reset Agenda and Vision 2036, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi has said.
Giving a keynote address at start of a two-day joint retreat between Office of the President and Ntlo Ya Dikgosi at Manong Game Lodge near Lobatse yesterday, President Masisi said the Reset Agenda and Vision 2036 intended to turn Botswana into a high income economy.
Therefore, he called on traditional leaders to assist in ensuring attainment of those aspirations.
He said as leaders of their tribes and members of the African Advisory Council leading up to independence, dikgosi played an important role in the country’s development.
He said dikgosi were later part of the Joint Advisory Council, which helped formulate how the country was to be run after independence.
He said they also helped to shape the nation through promotion of a culture of peace, tolerance, consultation and unity.
“I, therefore, implore you to help to maintain these cultural values and enable the country to progress further and achieve aspirations of being a high income economy. This is what the Reset Agenda is looking at, and you have a major role to play in its attainment,” said President Masisi.
He said the Reset Agenda also entailed increasing revenue sources for the country.
The priority in that respect, he noted, was to increase income generation from mineral resources.
To that effect, he said government was negotiating with De Beers for a larger share of rough diamonds mined in the country.
He said currently government sold only 25 per cent portion of rough diamonds mined in partnership with De Beers through the Okavango Diamond Company. The rest (75 per cent) went to De Beers.
He said the current arrangement disadvantaged Botswana.
Selling more unprocessed diamonds in the open market, Dr Masisi said, would unlock more opportunities from the diamond industry value chain and enable government to make significantly more revenue from diamonds than it was currently the case.
“We should change the way we have been doing things in the diamond sector and push to benefit more from the value chain and value additions in order to make more income from our resources. We should benefit more from our diamonds,” said the President.
He further said government intended to increase revenue generation from tourism and beef sectors. He said the plan was to have more Batswana playing a significant role in value chains of those sectors.
He said it was not good for the country to have the tourism wealth enjoyed by foreigners while Batswana remained poor.
Dr Masisi said by exporting beef and cattle by-products without processing them locally, the country was exporting jobs and wealth. He, therefore, said it was time for mind-set change and resetting to reclaim that wealth.
The President said increasing revenue resources would enable government to fund more development activities.
In his remarks, Ntlo ya Dikgosi chairperson, Kgosi Puso, said the retreat would allow dikgosi to be informed on the Reset Agenda and to share their advice. He said dikgosi had played an important role in fostering participatory democracy.
“We believe that we have been and should continue to be an integral part in the development of this country. Our main role is to build the nation and play a role in implementation of national programmes,” he said.
He asked government to empower the institution of bogosi so that it could continue being relevant to the nation and keep pace with modern emerging issues affecting the people. He said they should be given more training and necessary resources.
“We need more budget for bogosi to perform fully its functions. We need reforms in operations of the Ntlo ya Dikgosi so that it can reflect what the institution of bogosi is to the society,” he said.
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