Expectations high before Masisi’s SONA
FRANCISTOWN: On Monday, President Mokgweetsi Masisi is expected to tell the nation how he intends to address various challenges afflicting Botswana when he delivers the State of the Nation Address (SONA).
This year’s SONA is expected to be not different from the previous ones but it will be delivered against the backdrop of recent controversial issues that engulfed the nation entangling the powers that be in the process. In the not so distant past, Masisi was himself implicated in allegations of meddling in the Judiciary - an allegation that the Office of President (OP) vehemently denied saying that the President is addicted to the rule of law.
Just like in the previous years, all eyes will be on how Masisi intends to address the high unemployment rate that is hovering at 26%. Analysts from different fields have long said that high unemployment was a ticking time bomb since it mostly affects the youth who are the majority in the country.
In the build up to the 2019 General Elections, the main opposition coalition party, the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), had promised to create 100,000 annually. On the other hand, the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) promised to create jobs but did not state how many it will create if it retained power nor the time frame upon which the jobs will be created. Some sections of society have low confidence in some public institutions and it will be interesting to see how Masisi will allay their fears. For example, there is a feeling that public institutions like the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) have been politically
weaponised against certain members of society. The DPP and the DIS have denied those assertions on numerous occasions.
Masisi is also expected to address the issue of high inequality. According to the World Bank Overview of Botswana (2021), inequality remains amongst the highest in the world.
Opposition parties have long decried that the gap between the rich and poor in Botswana is huge and should be reduced. Inequality, analysts note, is a profound barrier to building a fairer and more inclusive society. Surely, Masisi will have a lot on his plate. Over the years, opposition parties in Botswana have lambasted the BDP saying it had failed to comprehensively deal with challenges affecting the nation.
While opposition parties are currently battling demons of their own in relation to working together to remove the BDP from power, the failures of the BDP usually unite them. It is thus expected that their reaction to Masisi’s SONA will be the same.
The Botswana Public Centre for Public Integrity’s (BCPI) Vivian Nwako expects Masisi to give
a progress report on the constitutional review process. “This will allow for Batswana to hold our leadership accountable and call for monitoring and implementation where applicable,” Nwako told Mmegi this week.
The BCPI also wants Masisi to come up with mitigating efforts to combat the rising global cost of living and its specific impact on the Botswana context. “Last year we have seen multiple price hikes across various sectors while the nation has yet to fully recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The SONA should look to keep citizens informed on what mid to long-term efforts are being carried out and what progress, if any, has been made. The 2023/24 Budget Strategy Paper identifies “sustaining livelihoods” as a priority area and as such, it would be pertinent to address what activities and initiatives are in the works to accomplish this,” says BCPI.
One of the salient issues that BCPI also expects Masisi to address is governance issues especially those pertaining to judicial integrity, which is a topic that has in most recent times been brought to the fore. “Failure to address this brings into question the state of the rule of law and the public’s perception of their legitimate and just avenues for redress of grievances. Addressing this will demonstrate an openness to dialogue, a willingness to move towards transparency and will go a long way in encouraging and/or re-establishing the public’s trust that key concerns and burning issues are being addressed by our leadership.” BCPI adds: “Transparency International placed Botswana’s Corruption Perception Index at 55 in 2021 (where 100 is the most clean and 0 is the most corrupt), from previous scores of 60 and above. The SONA should thus address corruption and anti-corruption efforts and activities as key drivers for achieving development goals.”
The president of the Botswana Nurses Union (BONU), Peter Baleseng expects the President to address amongst other issues, the shortage of medication that is rampant across most government health facilities in the country.
Failure to address this shortage in the short to long-term, Baleseng says, greatly endangers the lives of patients. He added that Masisi should address this issue because some patients and members of the public point a wrong finger to nurses when there is shortage of medication in health facilities.
“We also expect the President to address the issue of shortage of nurses across health facilities in the country. This is one of the most critical issues that Masisi must address because nursing shortages lead to errors, higher morbidity and mortality rates. In hospitals with high patient-to-nurse ratios, nurses experience burnout, dissatisfaction and the patients experience higher mortality and failure-to-rescue rates than facilities with lower patient-to-nurse ratios,” said Baleseng.