At the end of his term, Masisi will make it into the Forbes Magazines as one of the richest men in the world- Saleshando
SCORE CARD
Mmolotsi: 2/10
Saleshando: 4/10
Butale: Ungradeable
Kentse: 8.5/10
Last Sunday was President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s first anniversary in office as the elected President of the Republic of Botswana.
During the 2019 General Elections campaign Masisi and the ruling Botswana Democratic Party made a number of promises in their manifesto, top of the agenda being fighting corruption.
He went on record about increasing integrity and transparency in governance system through introduction of legislation on declaration of assets, whistle blowers protection and strengthening administrative protocols.
The president also pledged to create jobs in the entire value chains of the digital innovation, agriculture, mining, tourism, education, automotive, electronics, pharmaceuticals, solar and manufacturing industries.
He further promised to conduct a comprehensive constitutional, legislative and policy review, achieve a knowledge-based economy as envisioned by Vision 2036 by incremental planning and funding.
Concerning the private sector the president spoke of creating a conducive environment that would allow for a competitive and productive work force as well as increasing the ease of doing business in Botswana.
Masisi also promised to develop an industrial relations system in which employers, workers and their representative interact to set ground rules for the governance of work relationships.
“The BDP led Government will immediately evaluate and confirm the economic value of mineral assets of the BCL Mine to bring hope to Batswana, and provide the necessary data to potential investors. This will be succeeded by proper and speedy disposal of these assets by identifying a buyer or investor for the mine. The current liquidation process would have been curtailed, the estate brought to function, and jobs created for Batswana, including through additional economic activity in Selebi Phikwe and the SPEDU region,” Masisi said in his manifesto.
To mark the president’s one year in office, The Voice Staffer, DANIEL CHIDA speaks to political leaders about Masisi’s successes and failures.
Kagelelo Kentse– Chairman of BDP Communications
As the BDP we are quite confident that we are on the right track in fulfilling our election promises. Despite the challenges that have been brought by covid-19, we are confident that a lot of strides have been made by the BDP led government. We anticipate that the President will share some of these successes, plans and challenges during the State of the nation address next week.
Biggie Butale – Botswana Patriotic Front President
There is no positive change that Masisi has brought so far.
In fact this has been a horrible year for him. He has been a distraction instead of an asset in fighting COVID 19.
He promised to support the creative industry and nurture Botswood as well as to allow Batswana to operate businesses from their homes without application for licenses but that has not happened.
All he has done is donating billy goats. His initiative of giving farmers small stock does not in any way improve our economy. Besides his so called initiative is a duplication of an already existing government programme.
Where is the comprehensive constitutional review that he promised us? We had expected him to remove the Directorate of Corruption Economic Crime and Directorate of Intelligence Services from the Office of the President but nothing has been done.
What we now see is his extended State of Public Emergency so that he can run this country alone.
Mines are closing and people are losing jobs but it looks like he doesn’t really care.
Dumelang Saleshando-Vice President of Umbrella for Democratic Change
At the end of his term a few rich Batswana who would have successfully sued government for defamation and unlawful arrests will mark Masisi’s achievements.
People were hastily arrested for matters whose merits were not carefully assessed in the first place.
He is collapsing the economy and in the short period that he has been president he has amassed a lot of wealth together with his foreign friends that he has been awarding tenders to.
At the end of his term, Masisi will make it into the Forbes Magazine as one of the richest men in the world.
Wynter Mmolotsi– Vice President of Alliance for Progressives
We were promised a lot of things such as electric cars, foreign direct investments and improving the creative industry but now there is no word on that. We agreed with him when he promised a Constitutional Review but now we see him only wanting to review certain sections that favour him.
He is bringing Floor Crossing Bill because he is afraid that his Members of Parliament will cross the floor.
Declaration of Assets Bill has been deferred for a long time and it is something that was going to help in fighting corruption.
He spoke a lot about Citizen Economic Empowerment but because he has become a close friend or business associate with non-citizens and acquired shares from their companies, he has gone quiet on it.
We see he wants to hide behind COVID-19 for his failures but he has misused Coved -19 budget, which he took away from the Ministry of Health and Wellness to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.
On a scale of One to ten, I give him only two out of ten.