Africa-Press – Botswana. Vice President Slumber Tsogwane has implored residents of Mokobaxane and Orapa to actively participate in the economic development of the country by taking advantage of opportunities presented through government programmes and policies.
Addressing residents during a kgotla meeting on Tuesday, Mr Tsogwane talked about the small stock initiative, which he said had potential in the value chain development.
“We want to see wealth amongst Batswana. Embrace wealth and be bold in attaining it,” he said.
He said Batswana must adopt the culture of creating wealth in their country, adding that restriction of importation of some products like vegetables was meant to facilitate such.
The Vice President, also Boteti West MP, said government was working on a number of interventions as the country continued to face drought due to below average rainfall.
He said a decision was made to to realign government machineries and accelerate some of the projects.
“The objective is to also ensure that there is economic growth and implementation of developmental projects that will lead to a significant impact,” he said.
He said President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi’s travel to other countries was for benchmarking and to attract investors.
“Today’s economy is all about investment and entrepreneurship,” he said, emphasizing that Botswana was no longer on donor funding, but traded with other countries.
Mr Tsogwane cautioned those who were not making attempts to uplift their livelihoods, saying their interest was only on critiquing government programmes.
The Village Development Committee chairperson, Mr Bonyere Jane, earlier on expressed concern over delays in payment of suppliers of food commodities at the local primary school.
Mr Jane also pleaded with the Vice President to ask government to consider increasing the number of those absorbed through the Ipelegeng programme since the drought situation had left many empty handed.
In response the acting deputy council secretary, Ms Ndidza Molatole, said payment of suppliers should be done within 10 days.
She also noted that teams had been dispersed to conduct an assessment on drought, indicating the outcome would determine if it was necessary to increase the number of Ipelegeng employees.
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