Africa-Press – Botswana. As the race for the 2024 General Elections gains momentum, the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) President Dumelang Saleshando has come out guns blazing accusing the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) of turning the country into a failed state. He singled out the new agreement by the government and De Beers as testament that the ruling party does not have the interests of Batswana at heart claiming this has led to failure of the economy. Saleshando was speaking during the BCP Annual Conference held in Tutume village last week Saturday.
“Our economic situation would be much better if from day one we could have negotiated the best deal for the country with De Beers. Only now out of the blue without shame at all the BDP, panic stricken that it is losing elections, is shifting ground and in a populist shift, electioneering around diamonds when all the bad deals they complain of now, they are the ones who signed them,” he said.
He said in its shameful attempt to win state power at all costs, the ruling party is taking the nation for fools at the same time hurling insults at De Beers who have been their investment partner for years. He said this habit will in the process scare away potential investors from investing in the country. Under the new deal, Botswana will immediately get a 30 percent share of the rough stones extracted, up from 25 percent and it is expected to rise to 50 percent shareholding within a decade. Saleshando said economically Botswana is on its knees owing to bad leadership by the ruling BDP.
He also said while the country is rich with natural resources in terms of flora and fauna, the citizens remain excluded from the economy. “For instance, Botswana is the second largest producer of diamonds in the world, yet the people remain poor. Botswana is amongst the most unequal countries in the world, based on the gini coefficient score of 0.6 demonstrating a large gap between the rich and the poor people. Youth and rural populations remain disproportionately affected,” he said.
He said the narrow economic planning by the current government has resulted in jobless economic growth adding that unemployment remains high at 26 percent particularly among the youth. Saleshando emphasized that the government has dismally failed to diversify the economy, failing to create value chain including beneficiation. He said this has been worsened by other challenges such as regulatory constraints in a number of sectors, excessive red tapes relating to licenses, permits and access to finance. He also expressed worry that capital is over concentrated in a few hands.
“Capital is in the hands of those that have captured the BDP and their cronies. The majority of our people are not capitalized to thrive. We need to decentralize capital to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship that is there amongst our people because that will create jobs in sufficient numbers,” he added.
He said while his party is aware that managing an economy is not easy, they believe that with a population of 2.3 million people and abundance of resources, the country would have achieved more. He said achievement would range from, amongst others, first class health facilities and services, best doctors and health professionals and no shortage of medicines. Amongst other issues he accused the government of corruption and nepotism adding that it impacts on the economy.
For More News And Analysis About Botswana Follow Africa-Press
