Let the economy roll, ladies and gentlemen!
Newspaper columnists are most intriguing animals. In the run up to the October general elections many of them alleged that financial and other help that South African "billionaires" were extending to the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) political grouping and its leader, Advocate Duma Boko, was a loan to be repaid AFTER ELECTIONS through what they called "the vast mineral and other wealth that Botswana is endowed with". They claimed that Botswana has extremely vast resources which the South African donors to the UDC were "eyeing", and that should the UDC win the elections, these resources would be put at the disposal of the South African " billionaires" to take for a song. Of course rational people knew all along that these columnists are just Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) zealots masquerading as newspaper columnists. But by drumming on this nonsense, the BDP zealots did manage to turn even some educated voters against the UDC.
Now that their party, the BDP has "won" the general elections and is, presumably, in a position to exploit all these vast resources for the benefit of all Botswana citizens, the same newspaper columnists are screaming that Botswana is broke. They are now calling on their brand new government to educate the population about non-existence of foreign reserves that we could use to cushion ourselves against the looming economic hardships. They now want the population to expect tax increases; cuts in education spending by government; a whole austere package; in short they are now ready to tell the voters the truth about the economy that they have been managing since 1966 when the country attained independence from Great Britain.
And all this comes hardly a week after the elections and associated petitions were concluded at the courts of law.
The UDC has its work cut out for it. All the UDC needs to do is hold the BDP to account. Let the BDP exploit "the vast resources that Botswana is endowed with" to create employment, to invest in education and in our infrastructure. Let the economy roll, ladies and gentlemen!
Now that their party, the BDP has "won" the general elections and is, presumably, in a position to exploit all these vast resources for the benefit of all Botswana citizens, the same newspaper columnists are screaming that Botswana is broke. They are now calling on their brand new government to educate the population about non-existence of foreign reserves that we could use to cushion ourselves against the looming economic hardships. They now want the population to expect tax increases; cuts in education spending by government; a whole austere package; in short they are now ready to tell the voters the truth about the economy that they have been managing since 1966 when the country attained independence from Great Britain.
And all this comes hardly a week after the elections and associated petitions were concluded at the courts of law.
The UDC has its work cut out for it. All the UDC needs to do is hold the BDP to account. Let the BDP exploit "the vast resources that Botswana is endowed with" to create employment, to invest in education and in our infrastructure. Let the economy roll, ladies and gentlemen!
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