BNFYL, therefore, calls upon all patriotic forces in Botswana to join forces to oppose this scandalous transaction designed to enrich a few at the expense of many Batswana BNFYL is perturbed by the supersonic speed employed by government to secretly and single handedly decide to privatise BTC and the mode of such privatisation. BNFYL wishes to restate its strong opposition to privatisation in general and specifically condemns the decision taken by government to privatise BTC given negative social and economic repercussions that would flow from the contemplated privatisation. Privatisation by its nature transfers the ownership of national assets into the hands of few profit-motivated individuals. These individuals are not interested in providing social services to the poor. Their overriding motivation is profit maximisation. The unemployed and the poor do not matter to them. Private entities are concerned only with those from whom they can reap huge profits. It is common cause that the majority of Batswana are, as a result of the misdirected and exploitative BDP policies and misrule, the poor, unemployed live below the poverty datum line. These, together with BTC employees will be subjected to further suffering as a direct result of BTC privatisation. We are vehemently opposed to the privatisation of BTC. First, because it is erroneous at a policy level and indeed the highest level of political naivety to assume, as the BDP government does, that privatisation of BTC is good in itself in that it will improve efficiency and quality of services. The quality of service is a factor of management and not ownership. The performance of BTC and other parastatals is so disastrous mainly because the BDP Government has myopically decided to use political patronage and blind loyalty to the BDP as qualifications for appointment to Board membership. Secondly, given Botswana's economic structure, where the majority of citizens are living in misery and abject poverty amidst opulence and conspicuous consumption displayed by the BDP elites and their cronies, the privatisation of BTC would simply be the transfer of public assets into the hands of the few, who undoubtedly will be mostly foreigners. The BDP Government in an unexplained hurry to appease its foreign handlers and local lackeys, omitted to take the minimum precautions, which even governments in developed free market economies would take before privatising a strategic national asset such as BTC. In the worst-case scenario, privatisation of BTC should have been preceded by putting in place the following measures to protect national interest. This assumes Governments that have national interest at heart rather than profit maximisation by its funders and foreign Godfathers and the few rich comprador bourgeoisies): a) Put in place necessary measures to protect the public from a private monopoly, which the privatised BTC will be in the provision of fixed telephone services. It is worth noting that even BDP government's misconceived Privatisation Policy expressly requires that privatisation should be preceded by the introduction of competition law to control private monopolies. Under pressure from its local and foreign funders and friends with no interest of Batswana at heart, the BDP government has been forced to act against its own policy without shame. b) Governments should have enacted privatisation legislation that would clearly spell out the factors to be considered before a national entity is privatised, the powers of government ministers, the role of Parliament and other important national stakeholders such as PEEPA in the privatisation process. This would have helped regulate the discretion of government ministers and officials in the disposal of critical national assets and thereby control corruption. As it is, no one, including Members of Parliament, know what considerations were taken into account to decide to hand over BTC to foreign owners and local BDP's friends. c) Since the privatised BTC would have no motivation to service rural areas and other not - so - profitable places in the country, government should have first come out with a clearly spelt out strategy and policy to service these areas before deciding on the mode of privatisation of BTC. The BNFYL condemns in strongest possible terms the auctioning of public assets to foreign based multi-national corporations, since this is tantamount to repatriating public assets to foreign lands. Batswana must know that once these assets are out of their control, they (Batswana) will never get them back. We call upon the BDP government to stop forthwith the implementation of BTC privatisation. The BNFYL feels that if there are any institutions that need to be privatised and / or transformed into parastatals, and then Btv and Daily News should be the first candidates and not BTC. We call upon all Batswana, trade unions and parliamentarians to reject the premature privation of BTC. For our part, we undertake to mobilise our members and sympathisers in a crusade against legalised plundering of our national assets. Nelson Ramaotwana BNYL President Gaborone