Africa-Press – Botswana. Government should be the leading supporter of local businesses by facilitating them to take advantage of opportunities available around them. President Advocate Duma Boko made the statement when responding to concerns raised during a kgotla meeting in Tutume on Friday.
The president was particularly moved by the story of a local baker, Mr Unity Mosomodi, who decried what he termed being denied the opportunity to supply schools with bread only because his wife was a teacher in one of the village schools and his brother was a public officer elsewhere.
Narrating his ordeal, Mr Mosomodi said he got into the bakery business after discovering the gap in the business of supplying bread to schools. However, he said upon approaching the district council and education regional offices, he was informed that it would not be possible for him to be given the job because his relatives were public officers.
He said being denied that opportunity suppressed his business so much that he resorted to closing down an outlet he had opened in Francistown, resulting in 12 jobs lost. He added that the outlet in Tutume employed about 18 people, however with the current status of limited business, he would be forced to lay off some of them in order to keep afloat.
Mr Mosomodi appealed to President Boko to intervene in such situations because they were a setback. In his response, President Boko said it was imperative for government departments apply the policies as they were, noting that Mr Mosomodi’s case was one where local empowerment policy should apply. He noted that local businesses should be given priority in doing business with government ahead of well established entities such as chain stores.
On other issues, the President commended the district for having given children a platform to air their concerns and things they wished to see being done for them. In most cases, he said consultative forums such as kgotla meeting were preserved to be for elderly people, however, allowing children to come along would motivate them to share in their thoughts and aspirations.
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