UDC probes P55million commission in P16 billion BDF deal
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The opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) is hoping to use the Swedish governance system to find its way into exposing government in a controversial P16 billion fighter jets deal which is being stitched on behalf of the Botswana Defence Force (BDF).
Sweden forms part of the Scandinavian and Nordic Countries alongside Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland. The five countries are reputed for having one of the best governance systems in the world which guarantees among others; freedom of information, freedom of the press and most importantly, they are popular for their welfare system which has guaranteed quality life for each and every citizen. In Sweden, all public documents are public, unless it is marked “classified”. While in many other countries, including Botswana documents are not accessible, unless they are published by the government itself.
Every Swedish citizen is entitled by the law to have free access to official documents, in order to encourage the free exchange of opinion and the availability of comprehensive information. The process allows individuals to make requests to the government thorough personal visit, Email, letter, phone call and they will get the answer in a few days.It is this principle that the UDC leader, Duma Boko wants to use to achieve his goal following the petition which was sent to the Swedish government a few months ago. Boko told the media this week that UDC engaged Swedish ambassador to South Africa, Cecilia Julin for a briefing on the latest development.
Sweden closed its Botswana embassy in 2008, leaving the South African office to also serve its diplomatic missions in Botswana. The opposition leader said the ambassador has revealed that their petition has reached Prime Minister’s office who is still studying it. Boko earlier this year wrote a petition to the Swedish Government titled Botswana Arms race in the midst of poverty, massive unemployment and social inequality. The petition protested Botswana government’s ongoing and planned military spending.
Boko stated that their plea is representative of Botswana's political parties and civil society and they are hoping that the Swedish Parliament will not approve the sale of these fighter jets to the government of the Republic of Botswana as it is not in the national interest to do so. “Our position is that military spending must be kept to the barest minimum, and Botswana's meagre resources should be used to build better infrastructure, such as water and electricity supply, in order attract foreign investment, reduce poverty, unemployment, social inequality and reword labour productivity, especially in the public sector,” he wrote.
According to Boko, they intend to use the Swedish Information Ombudsman to get to the nitty-gritty of fighter jet deal, to get all information regarding the key players. There are reports that high ranking government officials have benefited handsomely from the dealing, pocketing around P55 million is commission. In the petition, Boko argued that the fighter jets deal was a bad transaction and it deviates greatly from the culture of previous spending in military under the presidency of Dr Festus Mogae and the late Sir Ketumile Quett Masire.
“Botswana’s first three Presidents, Seretse Khama (1955-1980) Quett Masire (1980-1998) and Festus Mogae (1998- 2008) although all determined to safeguard Botswana’s territorial integrity and national sovereignty, always put diplomacy above military might. President Quett Masire in particular, ruled Botswana when its territorial integrity and national sovereignty were most at risk from minority ruled South Africa, Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe] and South West Africa [now Namibia].”
“The thinking by these Presidents had always been to keep the military expenditure at the barest minimum and to devote as much financial resources as possible to the national development effort. Having given that background, we now turn to the subject of our petition, namely Botswana’s economically disastrous and totally unjustified arms race.” According to Stockholm International Peace Research (SIPRI), Botswana’s military expenditure increased from US$ 292 million in 1998 to US$ 377 million in 2008 to US$ 436 million in 2015 (at constant 2014 prices and exchanges rates).
Military expenditure has risen two folds from under P15 billion during President Festus Mogae governance to P35 billion under Khama’s presidency. Under the National Development Plan (NDP) 11, P14billion will be allocated to military expenditure, compared to P21 billion in the NDP 10. This takes military spending during Khama’s two national development planning period to P35 billion, nearly P15 billion more than Mogae’s two planning periods.
Military expenditure has become a contentious issue during Khama’s presidency, with opposition legislators stating that it is misplaced and unnecessary. When presenting the NDP 11 IN 2016, Minister of Finance, Kenneth Matambo shared that the total amount of money used on Defence and Security together during NDP 9 was P15.56 billion whilst P36.77 billion was used in NDP 10, which translates to 4.32 per cent and 3.78 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) respectively. Out of the total amount, the amount of military expenditure alone during NDP 9 was P9.89 billion or 2.75 per cent of GDP and in NDP 10 the amount was P21.26 billion or 2.18 per cent of GDP.
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ENVIRONMENT ISSUES: Masisi asks Virginia for help
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
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
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.”