Economic Inclusion Bill tabled in Parliament
Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry Mmusi Kgafela has presented before Parliament, the Economic Inclusion Bill.
If passed into law, the Bill seeks to deliberately give citizens more opportunities in the country’s economy at both public and private sector levels.
The Bill replaces the much- touted Citizen Economic Empowerment Bill, which the Minister says is discriminatory, especially the use of ‘ Citizen’ as far as the constitution is concerned.
He told legislators that the objective of the Economic Inclusion Bill is to establish the Economic Inclusion Office with the primary mandate of promoting the effective participation of the targeted citizens in economic growth and development.
The fully- fledged office, which will have a coordinator, will among others be tasked with promoting the economic empowerment of targeted citizens as well as overseeing and coordinating the implementation of the relevant existing economic empowerment laws, initiatives, and programmes.
Kgafela who was appointed to the Ministry in April said the office will also have functions to ensure an integrated, coordinated, and uniform approach to economic empowerment.
The Bill, which citizens have yearned for all these years will also avail opportunities to own productive land and property; prohibit transfers, allotting, or issue or transfer of any portion of private- sector enterprise owned and controlled by a targeted citizen to a non- citizen.
The Bill also deals with the provision of opportunities for targeted citizens to do business with the State as well as preferential treatment of preferential procurement to targeted citizen- owned enterprises.
The other aspect of the Bill also deals with the training of targeted citizens hence the emphasis on lifelong learning education.
“While in Part VIII we recognise that Non- State Actors have to play a role in the delivery of public sector programmes and we seek to ensure that empowerment programmes and entrepreneurship development not only points to Government and its agencies but to all, including the private sector and those that have the compulsion or obligation to play a part in economic development and growth,” Mmusi, a lawyer by training, said.
“We recognise the importance of mentorship and sharing of knowledge and also emphasise the need for foreign investors to empower targeted citizens through value chains and other measures”.
Under the proposed Economic Inclusion Bill, there will be social upliftment programmes that ensure nobody is left behind. It provides for everyone, including the private sector and non- governmental organisations to have a role to play in empowering all targeted citizens and citizen- owned enterprises in the society and communities’.
For the first time, there will be localisation of some procurement activities, setting targets for admission of targeted citizens in tertiary education devoting part of the profit to the social investment of communities comprising disadvantaged targeted citizens; and adhering to a point- based system aimed at empowering businesses owned by youth, women, and people with disabilities.
Meanwhile, speaking to Botswana Guardian on Wednesday afternoon, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee of Trade, Finance and Economic Development, Onneetse Ramogapi said it is surprising that the government has now changed from empowering citizens of Botswana to economic inclusion.
“All along, Batswana have been yearning for a citizen economic empowerment law as they have been unfairly excluded from the economy. Now, the Minister is coming with an economic inclusion Bill
that lacks in so many aspects.
“We are wondering why the government has now changed from citizen economic empowerment law to economic inclusion law. We need more clarity,” the disappointed legislator said.
The argument advanced by Kgafela on why the wording of the Bill has since changed, is that ‘ the word ‘ citizen’ is discriminatory as supported by Section 15 of the Constitution. The Palapye Member of Parliament said the Bill has failed to state specifically what it means by ‘ targeted citizens’.
There are a number of policies that are clear on who citizens are and what they stand to benefit from targeted initiatives.
“There are a number of citizen economic policies and initiatives out there. Why is it that, when the government wants to make laws, she finds these to be discriminatory? Does this mean those policies will be scrapped off since they are discriminatory,” he asked rhetorically? He said there are citizen empowerment initiatives in areas such as land and education which have been in existence for years, but they have never been labelled as ‘ discriminatory’ against non- citizens.
“The Minister has told us this will become clearer during the drafting of the Act’s regulations. We are not satisfied as we want the Bill to be clear from the onset’”.
According to the MP, the proposed economic inclusion law ‘ sounds more like a poverty eradication programme. There are clauses in the Bill that talk of graduation from the Act and its initiatives.
The question is at what stage would you say a citizen is now better off and he or she can no longer benefit from the law?
“We want citizens ( using the proposed law) to move from low income to middle and ultimately high net- worth citizens. This Bill does not make any provision for this,” Ramogapi cried, adding that citizens have been excluded from many sectors of the economy.
“We had wanted a law which will start protecting citizens against this exclusion,” he added.
Another first for the country contained in the Bill is funding for Economic Empowerment Initiatives.
“This part provides for financiers to design sustainable and more robust funding for growing citizenowned small, medium, and micro enterprises ( SMMEs),” Mmusi explained.
The Economic Inclusion Bill also provides for the creation of investment to be floated in the Botswana Stock Exchange.
There will be penalties for those who misrepresent compliance status and those who provide wrong information and engage in corrupt practices.