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Mixed reactions to Masisi appointment


The appointment of Mokgweetsi Masisi as Vice President of Botswana and his endorsement by Parliament on Wednesday has received mixed reactions from across the political divide, business and civil society.


Usually the endorsement of a Vice President in Botswana should seal the debate on who will succeed a sitting President. Some still doubt if Masisi will succeeded President Ian Khama when he leaves office at the beginning 2018. But the President has reiterated that Masisi is the one.


Khama kept his choice of Vice President, a closely guarded secret, and majority of newly elected MPs were kept in the dark on who they will endorse as Vice President until the eleventh hour.


Even on the eve of the VP endorsement the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) caucus only deliberated on the selection of Speaker of the National Assembly, Deputy Speaker and Chief Whip.


To those who understand the leadership trends in the BDP, by choosing Masisi as VP has many dynamics to it. For the better part of the 10th parliament Masisi worked closely with President Khama at the Office of the President. In 2009, following the general elections Khama appointed Masisi Assistant Minister of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration but the resignation of Lesego Motsumi in 2011 to take up an ambassadorial post in India saw Masisi being elevated to the post of full minister in the Office of the President.


Masisi is viewed as the most loyal to Khama in the Cabinet and was tasked by the President Khama to head his poverty eradication projects, a task the Moshopa-Manyana legislator did to the satisfaction of the President.  When the Ministry of Education and Skills Development was marred by troubles, Khama temporary sent Masisi as a stopgap while Venson-Moitoi was relieved of her duties- given the fact that she never went back to the Ministry again after being appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation last week.


Masisi was so confident of his prospects for Vice Presidency that in 2012 when Mompati Merafhe announced that he will be leaving at the end of July, Masisi told reporters that he was confident that he will be appointed as Merafhe’s replacement. However, Khama settled for the more experienced Ponatshego Kedikilwe as the replacement instead. Kedikilwe retired from politics following the dissolution of the 10th parliament.


Masisi has generally been accepted in the BDP as Vice President. His appointment has satisfied most party members in the south who felt that there was need to appoint one of their own to balance power in the ruling party.


WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT MASISI APPOINTMENT
BOFEPUSU Secretary General Tobokani Rari: “In my honest opinion I do not think Mr Masisi makes a cut to be a Vice President of this country. My reasons are that he has been the Minister of Presidential Affairs and quite antagonistic to the public service. It was during his stewardship that we have seen gross deterioration of employer-employee relations. I am not happy that he was appointed in that respect.


I understand that he would still be the Minister of Education and Skills Development at the same time and that does not make me happy either. That will be very unfortunate because the V.P has huge responsibility as the coordinator of all government projects, if that has not changed. That is another mammoth task. There is nobody in this country who does not know the huge responsibility that comes with leading the Ministry of Education hence the Ministry has two assistant ministers. He will find it difficult to juggle between the two jobs. President Khama has to relieve him fast. Moonlighting at the Ministry of Education would lead to a crisis, because that is what he would do, moonlight. As it is morale of the teachers are already low.”


Former Molepolole South legislator Daniel Kwelagobe: “The President chooses a character he feels comfortable working with, so I cannot judge his choice of Vice President. Whether Masisi is a good leader or not, it is not for me to determine. I believe the President made the best choice and he is and would be more comfortable working with Masisi.”


Former BDP Youth Wing leader Bontsi Monare: “The newly elected Vice President of the Republic of Botswana Mokgweetsi Masisi is a young and pragmatic leader. He was the best choice in our current time because he brings the best of both worlds – speaking generationally. His thinking is very well set apart and that he is not a typical thinker and that’s important looking at our preparation towards the next development planning. We need a fresh approach to economic development in general and employment creation in particular, so really if you are out of the box thinker with a strong leadership and administrative acumen Masisi is a perfect choice.”


MASISI’S JOURNEY
Botswana’s 8th Vice President Masisi is MP for Moshupa/Manyana constituency and Minister of Education and Skills Development, Mokgweetsi Masisi.


He initially trained as a teacher majoring in English and History. In 1984 he taught at Mmanaana Secondary School in Moshupa, while also leading community development initiatives there.


In 1987, Masisi transferred to Curriculum Development and Evaluation and worked as Social Studies Curriculum Specialist, where he supervised a group of subjects (Social Studies, Music, Religious and Moral Education)
In 1989 he studied at graduate level at Florida State University, USA, specialising in Social Studies Education and Instructional Systems Design.


In 1990 re-joined Curriculum Development and oversaw Social Studies and other subjects and played major role in development of new assessment system of Criterion Referenced Testing (CRT). There he became the National Coordinator for Social Studies Education and Botswana’s representative as the African Social and Environmental Studies Programme (ASESP) and Board member for Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA) for more than 5 years. He was also a member of several NGO Boards.


Vice President Masisi joined UNICEF in 1995 as Education Project Officer. In 2003 from resigned to join politics, standing unsuccessfully for BDP primaries in Moshupa Constituency.  Joined International Research NGO and focussed on HIV Prevention research
and began studying for PhD in epidemiology.


In 2008 Vice President Masisi won the BDP Primary Elections and thus became the party’s Parliamentary candidate for Moshupa, which he subsequently secured in the October 2009 general election. Also in October 2009, Masisi was appointed as the Assistant Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public Administration. He was subsequently promoted to be the Minister for Presidential Affairs and Public administration in January 2011.


In April 2014 Vice President Masisi was transferred to the Ministry of Education and Skills Development on an acting basis until the general elections on the 24th October 2014, when he was re-elected Member of Parliament for Moshupa-Manyana.
 

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ENVIRONMENT ISSUES: Masisi asks Virginia for help

24th March 2023

President Mokgweetsi Masisi says the issue of sustainable natural resources management has always been an important part of Botswana’s national development agenda.

Masisi was speaking this week on the occasion of a public lecture at Virginia Polytechnic, under theme, “Merging Conservation, Democracy and Sustainable Development in Botswana.”

Botswana, according to Masisi, holds the view that the environment is fragile and as such, must be managed and given the utmost protection to enable the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“It is necessary that we engage one another in the interchange of ideas, perspectives, visualizations of social futures, and considerations of possible strategies and courses of action for sustainable development,” said Masisi.

On the other hand, dialogue, in the form of rigorous democratic discourse among stakeholders presents another basis for reconfiguring how people act on their environments, with a view to conserving its resources that “we require to meet our socio-economic development needs on a sustainable basis,” Masisi told attendees at the public lecture.

He said government has a keen interest in understanding the epidemiology and ecology of diseases of both domestic and wild animals. “It is our national interest to forestall the dire consequences of animal diseases on our communities livelihoods.”

President Masisi hoped that both Botswana and Virginia could help each other in curbing contagious diseases of wildlife.

“We believe that Virginia Tech can reasonably share their experiences, research insights and advances in veterinary sciences and medicines, to help us build capacity for knowledge creation and improve efforts of managing and containing contagious diseases of wildlife. The ground is fertile for entering into such a mutually beneficial partnership.”

When explaining environmental issues further, Masisi said efforts of conservation and sustainable development might at times be hampered by the emergence and recurrence of diseases when pathogens mutate and take host of more than one species.

“Water pollution also kills aquatic life, such as fish, which is one of humanity’s much deserved sources of food. In this regard, One Health Approach imposes ecological responsibility upon all of us to care for the environment and the bio-diversity therein.”

He said the production and use of animal vaccines is an important space and tool for conservation, particularly to deal with trans-border animal diseases.

“In Botswana, our 43-year-old national premier pharmaceutical institution called Botswana Vaccine Institute has played its role well. Through its successful production of highly efficacious Foot and Mouth vaccines, the country is able to contain this disease as well as supply vaccines to other countries in the sub-region.:

He has however declared that there is need for more help, saying “We need more capacitation to deal with and contain other types of microbial that affect both animals and human health.”

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Masisi saddened by deaths of elephant attacks

24th March 2023

President Mokgweetsi Masisi has expressed a strong worry over elephants killing people in Botswana. When speaking in Virginia this week, Masisi said it is unfortunate that Batswana have paid a price with their own blood through being attacked by elephants.

“Communities also suffer unimaginable economic losses yearly when their crops are eaten by the elephants. In spite of such incidents of human-elephant conflict, our people embrace living together with the animals. They fully understand wildlife conservation and its economic benefits in tourism.”

In 2018, Nthobogang Samokwase’s father was attacked by an elephant when travelling from the fields, where he stayed during the cropping season.

It was reported that the man couldn’t run because of his age. He was found trampled by the elephant and was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.

In the same year, in Maun, a 57-year-old British woman was attacked by an elephant at Boro and died upon arrival at the hospital. The woman was with her Motswana partner, and were walking dogs in the evening.

Last month, a Durban woman named Carly Marshall survived an elephant attack while on holiday in the bush in Botswana. She was stabbed by one of the elephant’s tucks through the chest and was left with bruises. Marshall also suffered several fractured ribs from the ordeal.

President Masisi Botswana has the largest population of African elephants in the world, totaling more than 130 000. “This has been possible due to progressive conservation policies, partnerships with the communities, and investment in wildlife management programmes.”

In order to benefit further from wildlife, Masisi indicated that government has re-introduced controlled hunting in 2019 after a four-year pause. “The re-introduction of hunting was done in an open, transparent and democratic way, giving the communities an opportunity to air their views. The funds from the sale of hunting quota goes towards community development and elephant conservation.”

He stressed that for conservation to succeed, the local people must be involved and derive benefits from the natural resources within their localities.

“There must be open and transparent consultations which involve all sectors of the society. It is against this backdrop that as a country, we lead the continent on merging conservation, democracy and sustainable development.”

Masisi stated that Botswana is open to collaborative opportunities, “particularly with identifiable partners such as Virginia Tech, in other essential areas such as conservation, and the study of the interplay among the ecology of diseases of wild animals and plants, and their effects on human health and socio-economic development.”

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Gov’t commit to injecting more funds in fighting HIV

24th March 2023

Minister for State President Kabo Morwaeng says government will continue to make resources available in terms of financial allocations and human capital to ensure that Botswana achieves the ideal of eradicating HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.

Morwaeng was speaking this morning in Gaborone at the High-Level Advocacy event to accelerate HIV Prevention in Botswana. He said the National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAPHA), in partnership with UNAIDS, UN agencies, the Global Fund and PEPFAR, have started a process of developing transition readiness plan for sustainability of HIV prevention and treatment programmes.

“It is important for us, as a country that has had a fair share of donor support in the response to an epidemic such as HIV and AIDS, to look beyond the period when the level of assistance would have reduced, or ceased, thus calling for domestic financing for all areas which were on donor support.”

Morwaeng said this is important as the such a plan will guarantee that all the gains accrued from the response with donor support will be sustained until the end when “we reach the elimination of HIV and AIDS as a public health threat by 20230,” he said.

“I commit to continue support efforts towards strengthened HIV prevention, accentuating HIV primary prevention and treatment as prevention towards Zero New Infections, Zero Stigma, Discrimination and Zero AIDS related death, to end AIDS in Botswana.”

He reiterated that government commits to tackle legislative, policy and programming challenges that act as barriers to the achievement of the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat.

In the financial year 2022/2023, a total of 119 Civil Society Organizations, including Faith Based Organizations, were contracted with an amount of P100 million to implement HIV and NCDs prevention activities throughout the country, and the money was drawn from the Consolidated Fund.

Through an upcoming HIV Prevention Symposium, technical stakeholders will use outcomes to develop the Botswana HIV Prevention Acceleration Road Map for 2023-2025.

Morwaeng stated that government will support and ensure that Botswana plays its part achieving the road map. He said there is need to put hands on the deck to ensure that Botswana sustains progress made so far in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

“There are tremendous achievements thus far to, reach and surpass the UNAIDS fast track targets of 95%- 95%- 95% by the year 2025. As reflected by the BAIS preliminary results of 2021, we now stand at 95- 98- 98 against the set targets.”

“These achievements challenge us to now shift our gears and strive to know who are the remaining 5% for those aware of their HIV status, 2% of enrolment on treatment by those aware of their status and 2% of viral suppression by those on treatment.”

Explaining this further, Morwaeng said shift in gears should extend to coming up with robust strategies of determining where these remaining people are as well as how they will be reached with the necessary services.

“These are just some of the many variables that are required to ensure that as a country, we are well positioned to reaching the last mile of our country’s response to the HIV and AIDS pandemic.”

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