BOPEU Calls For Review Of Social Protection Schemes :: Mmegi Online

The Botswana Public Employees Union (BOPEU) has suggested for a review of national safety nets with the view to stimulating economic activity and eradicating poverty. In their national budget preview, carried in this paper, BOPEU president Andrew Motsamai is worried that while the 2016/17 budget makes reference to social protection schemes and programmes among others, there is no reporting to evaluate whether these are yielding desired outcomes on the ground or not.

“There is a worrisome trend of new schemes, strategies, and programmes that most of the time never fulfil their mandates,” the BOPEU leader remarked in his pre-budget speech document released two weeks ahead of the presentation of the national budget for 2017/18.

BOPEU is also concerned that the current social welfare programmes such as Self Help Housing Agency (SHHA) are not all inclusive, adding that there is need to increase the scope of social welfare programmes to a level that will include cadres in teaching, nursing and other professions. “A traditional domestic household is by nature an extended family and if the scope to the access of such programmes is broadened, it will inevitably cover more members of the traditional family. The end result is an increased average worker’s purchasing power as more family members subsequently get enrolled in social welfare programmes”.

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